Barcelona forced to spend around 16 million euros after Koeman's sacking

FC Barcelona did not do themselves any favours financially when they sacked manager Ronald Koeman. Now, they will be forced to spend somewhere in the vicinity of 16 million euros for Koeman's severance as well as the buyout clause for Xavi Hernandez, whom they are eyeing as the Dutchman's replacement.

As reported earlier, Koeman's contract with the club included a clause that protected his income. Basically, Barcelona need to compensate him for what he would have earned had he not left his post as manager of the Netherlands national football team to join the Catalan giants. That amount is believed to be about 12 million euros.

Meanwhile, Xavi currently has a job as manager of Qatar based Al-Sadd SC. He has had tremendous success so far, with the club currently on top of the Qatar Stars League. The club is reportedly open to letting the former Barcelona midfielder go, but they likely won't budge when it comes to his 1 million euro release clause. Still, Barcelona will try to negotiate, and according to Marca, they are planning on offering to play a friendly against Al-Sadd in Qatar if the release clause is omitted or at least reduced significantly.

Apart from the cash they need to put up at the onset, they will also have to convince Xavi to accept a much lower salary package than he probably deserves due to the much-talked about salary cap imposed by La Liga. It may be remembered that the club was forced to let go of numerous players, including former captain Lionel Messi, due to their financial crisis that has lowered their salary cap significantly.

Xavi himself will need to sacrifice his current lucrative job for a chance to manage his boyhood club. There is no doubt that it is a prestigious post, but the current state of Barcelona is not a guarantee of success and he will be risking both his livelihood and reputation. Koeman himself is a club legend, but that did not prevent him from leaving the club under very unpleasant circumstances.

Several first team veterans like Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets have accepted massive salary cuts in order to help the club this season, and their former teammate may have to make a similar sacrifice if he becomes their coach. According to calculations on the salary cap, the Blaugrana can only afford to pay Xavi and his coaching staff just over three million euros until the end of the current campaign.