Discover which Barcelona players have paid the most in fines...
Barcelona’s first team delegate Carles Naval revealed a few weeks ago in an interview on Catalunya Radio some of the disciplinary measures Luis Enrique has in place for when players arrive late for training or games, starting with a fine of 200 euros. Since then, at SPORT we have wanted to expand on that and shed more light on the club’s fines system.
To begin with, the fines are divided into two scales: for arriving late for training and for arriving late for matches. The first is what Naval was referring to. The first time a player arrives late for training, he’s fined 200 euros. The second time, he’s fined 400 euros, the third time 800 euros… it multiplies by two each time you are late. It’s considered much more serious to arrive late for a game. How can you arrive late for a game? you may ask. Well, if the game kicks off at 20.30, the players must be at Camp Nou at 19.00. Arriving even one minute late to the dressing room comes with a fine. The amount in this case, for a first time offence, is 400 euros. But the second offence is not 800 euros, but 1600 euros - the amount multiplies by four, not by two.
In Luis Enrique’s manual, you’re late the moment the clock ticks past the meeting time. That’s to say, if training starts at 11.00, the players have to be in the dressing room one hour before. If anyone arrives at 10.01, they will have to pay the corresponding fine. The person in charge of controlling and monitoring the players and collecting the fines is Naval.
Some years, the amounts that have been raised have exceeded 10,000 euros, with all of the money going to charity. Which charity exactly is chosen by the club captains. The initiative took off during Pep Guardiola’s spell as Barça manager, around the year 2010. Until then, the ‘fines bank’ had been used to organise things such as squad dinners.
RANKING
It’s likely you want to know which player has had to fork out the most money on fines this season. Well, the ‘winner’ is Gerard Pique. The King of Periscope is top of the list by some distance in respect to his team-mates, with 6,200 euros paid out due to his tardiness this season so far. A long way back in second place is the Brazilian, Neymar, who has had to pay 1,200 euros. Meanwhile, another Brazilian, Adriano, is third with 1,000 euros. In fourth place is one of the squad’s new arrivals, Turkish international Arda Turan, with 600 euros.
The problem for Pique is that if he’s late for another training session this season, he would have have to pay 6,400 euros. If after that he then had the misfortune to arrive late for a game, that fine would multiply by four and he would have to pay 25,600 euros.
REFERENCES
In any case, it’s important to highlight some things which say a lot about Luis Enrique’s squad and their huge amounts of success. The first thing is that the four captains - Andres Iniesta, Leo Messi, Sergio Busquets and Javier Mascherano - lead by example. None of them have received a single fine throughout this season. Another player who in theory is ‘crazy’, Dani Alves, is an example professionally, too, as he’s not arrived late, either. And Luis Suarez follows in his ‘friend’ Messi’s footsteps. The Uruguayan has not been fined once this season. With so much professionalism in the squad, it’s not surprising that they have reached this stage of the campaign with a successive treble still on the cards.
The fines list is not a secret, it is not hidden nor is it locked away in a draw. In fact, Luis Enrique wanted the list to be visible. It is mounted on one of the walls in the dressing room so that all of the players can look at the who has committed the most violations. Seeing how few fines have been given this season, it is clear that Luis Enrique’s formula works.
