[theo_luddite]

Agreed Devon - but they (Barca & Real) put themselves in that position by buying "galacticos" at whatever price and paying them silly money wages for years. Now all of a sudden they are skint after a season and a bit of no fans in the stadiums. No doubt many of their season ticket holders still continue to hold on to their seats, still bought shirts etc, etc and other merchandise sales globally would have continued, maybe to a slightly lesser extent with travel bans and all that. TV money would therefore have been the one area where they might have had a major reduction in income (as Sky have reduced fees to Prima Donna League and parachute payments) but those two cream off even more of the income streams in Spain than our so called Top 6.

So if they are "skint" it's down to rank bad (money) management - and aren't they (Barca at least) "owned by the fans" anyway?