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Barcelona is unarguably one of the most popular football brands in the world, possessing numerous world class players that makes the Blue, Maroon and Garnet of the club instantly recognizable anywhere in the world.
The club has also won admirers for the proficient way in which the club's affairs have been run over the years at board level, and the La Masia model of bringing players through the ranks has been copied by numerous other clubs in a bid to imitate the Barcelona template.
However, for all of the club's goodwill, they are not without their flaws, as like with any other football club (or business entity for that matter), Barca have also been involved in their own fair share of shocking decisions at a boardroom level. In this piece, we shall be taking a look at five of the most outrageous decisions taken by Barcelona over the last ten years.
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#5 Neymar's signing
Following his spectacular performances as a teenager with boyhood club Santos in Brazil, Neymar emerged as one of the most in demand prospects in world football, with numerous of Europe's leading sides interested in getting his signature.
Eternal rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona went head-to-head for the Brazilian's signature, with Neymar finally choosing to move to Catalunya in 2013 despite Madrid having reportedly offered him a pre-contract in 2010.
The deal to bring Neymar to Nou Camp was said to be worth €57m, which was the second highest amount paid for a player in the club's history at the time.
Neymar went on to enjoy a productive four year stay at Barcelona, forming one third of the devastating trident known as MSN, which terrorized defenses across Europe and helped Barcelona to win a plethora of titles.
However, while the decision to sign Neymar was undoubtedly a masterstroke on the field of play, the shenanigans which went on behind the scenes to get the deal over the line are still up for much debate to now.
The real cost of the deal is estimated to have been above €100m, with Barcelona reportedly paying Neymar Santos Jr (who is his father and also doubles as his agent) the sum of €10m to bring his son to the Camp Nou.
Elsewhere, there were also reports of the club using old documents in a bid to hide the true value of the transfer.
To cut a long story short, Neymar's transfer was so shady that it is still being investigated today, while it also led to the resignation of former Barcelona president Sandro Rosell (the man in charge when the Neymar deal was sanctioned), and the club also paid a fine of €5.5m to the Spanish courts in 2016 over infringements found in the Neymar case.
While Neymar was an uindoubted success on the pitch of play for Barcelona, the mysteries surrounding his arrival might take years to fully unravel and it without doubt one of the most scandalous transfers of all time.
#4 Qatar Airways sponsorship
For over a century, Barcelona had a no shirt sponsorship deal, with the front of their shirts remaining bare without any brand advertising, which went against the practice by other clubs who crested brand names across the front of their shirts.
Football matches are among the most watched events in the world, with the bigger clubs having global followings that run into their hundreds of millions every week, so having your brand or product on shirts of such clubs is an advertising goldmine (and also financially rewarding for the clubs).
Barcelona however decided against following the trend and this went in line with the club's motto of mes que un club (more than just a club), as it was believed that promoting the club's core values were more important than profitability, which would have been the case had the club advertised across the front of their shirts.
When the club did decide to have a name crested on their shirt front, it came in collaboration with UNICEF, with any proceeds going into making the world a better place by taking care of the welfare of children.
This all changed however in 2013 when the club entered a very lucrative shirt sponsorship deal with Qatar Airways valued to be worth around £25m a year to display Qatar Airways at the front of their shirt.
At the time of signing, it was the most lucrative shirt sponsorship deal in history and Barcelona came under a lot of pressure for it, as not only were they breaking a 117 year old policy, but Qatar was also infamous for its human rights violation as a country and its treatment of migrant workers.
Barcelona sacrificed its morals and club values on the altar of commercial profit and this was unexpected to say the least. Qatar Airways has since been replaced by another Asian e commerce giant.
#3 The signing of Paulinho
For decades, Barcelona have achieved a trademark of playing intricate possession based football, with their players (mostly La Masia graduates) having this style inbuilt in their DNA.
Style and technique were emphasized over other attributes like speed and physique, with the result being that most of Barcelona's players were on the small side, but devastatingly brilliant with the ball at their feet.
The golden age of this philosophy came in the middle of the last decade when Barcelona conquered all before them, largely on the back of technically gifted midfielders.
It is in keeping in line with this tradition that it came as a major shock when the club expressed interest in signing Brazilian international Paulinho from Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande, much less for the princely sum of £40m.
Paulinho was the antithesis to everything a Barcelona midfielder is supposed to be, as he favored strength over guile, and was the quintessential definition of a powerhouse midfielder.
He had earlier spent three largely uninspiring years in England with Tottenham before his move to China, which is why it came as a surprise to many when Barcelona signed him up.
Even though Paulinho went on to silence his critics with his somewhat impressive performance for Barca, the fact that the club decided to loan him out after just a season and went on to sign another similar midfielder (albeit on a higher level) in Arturo Vidal only served to further confound the mystery as to why he was signed in the first place.
#2 Signing Lucas Digne
Jordi Alba has undoubtedly been one of the world's standout left-backs ever since his return to Camp Nou in 2012, proving his usefulness in all of Barcelona's triumphs since then with his bombarding runs forward and astute defending while also forging a great relationship on the pitch with Lionel Messi.
However, for all of his brilliance, he is not eternal and would always have needed an understudy, and it is with this in mind that Barcelona sanctioned the purchase of Lucas Digne for €20.5 in 2016 from PSG.
The French international had failed to nail down a regular spot at the Parc des Princes in three years at the club and his stock did not improve much upon arriving Barcelona.
Digne always looked out of place in a fluid and dynamic Barcelona side, struggling to keep up pace with his teammates on the rare occasions that he did feature.
He was unsurprisingly sold to Everton in the summer of 2018 and his signing by Barcelona is further compounded by the fact that the club let the highly rated young left-back Alex Grimaldo leave for Benfica few months earlier despite the fact that he was steeped in Barcelona's culture, having been through the ranks in La Masia.
#1 Using Samuel Eto'o as a makeweight to sign Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Once upon a time before Lionel Messi held sway at Barcelona, a certain Cameroonian by the name of Samuel Eto'o was the club's go-to man in terms of getting goals.
Samuel Eto'o banged in goals for fun during his six year stay at Nou Camp, scoring over 100 goals at the club and becoming the highest appearing African in history in La Liga.
In his prime, Eto'o was considered as one of the best strikers in the world, winning the Spanish Golden Boot on one occasion as well as making a podium finish at the FIFA World Best award as well as the African Player of the Year a record four times.
He helped guide Barcelona to two Champions League final victories, scoring in both finals as well as three La Liga trophies and he played his way into Barcelona greatness with his goal scoring displays.
At about the same time, a certain Swede in the name of Zlatan Ibrahimovic was also making headlines with his displays in Italy with Inter MIlan and Juventus. However, for all his wonderful performances, it still came as a major surprise when Pep Guardiola snactioned the purchase of Ibrahimovic from Inter Milan in the summer of 2009 in a deal worth €66m, with Barca paying the Italians the sum of €46m added to Samuel Eto'o.
So in essence, Samuel Eto'o was offered to Inter for just €20m, which was rather ridiculous considering Eto's abilities and the fact that he was just 28-years-old at the time (just a year older than Ibrahimovic).
To further highlight the ludicrousness of the deal, Zlatan left the Nou Camp for AC Milan just a season later, while Eto's helped Inter win a treble in the same time (eliminating Barcelona along the way in the UCL).
