FC Barcelona lose millions thanks to virus outbreak

As if FC Barcelona did not have enough financial problems, they are now set to lose millions of dollars due to the cancellation of their pre-season friendly against Juventus FC on Saturday, July 22. The club had to make the last-minute decision to call off the match after a number of players fell ill due to viral gastroenteritis.

The match was supposed to kick-off a profitable pre-season tour of the United States, which should see the club rake in revenue from gate receipts and merchandise sales. However, with so many players falling ill, they had to isolate those who were affected in order to prevent the virus from spreading further.

The match was scheduled to be played at the Levi's Stadium in San Francisco, with most tickets having already been sold weeks ago. However, Ticketmaster will now be issuing refunds after the match was cancelled.

In a statement, the club said: "Barcelona hereby informs that the game against Juventus FC, scheduled for today, July 22 at 7:30 PM at Levi's Stadium, as part of the Soccer Champions Tour, has been canceled. A significant part of the Blaugrana squad has a viral gastroenteritis."

The venue itself issued a refund notice through its official social media channels. "The Soccer Champions Tour match tonight at Levi's Stadium between FC Barcelona v Juventus has been canceled. Tickets and parking passes purchased through Ticketmaster or directly from the venue will be refunded within 30 days to the original payment method," read the statement.

Fans who purchased tickets and parking passes through other channels are being urged to seek refunds through their original point of purchase. The statement further added that there are no other changes to the Soccer Champions Tour, at least for now.

How much did Barcelona lose in ticket revenue?

The club, which needs every penny it can get at the moment, has lost somewhere between $2million-$3million (£1.5m-£2.3m) due to the cancellation. According to Diario AS, about 60,000 tickets have been sold for the match between the Catalans and the Italian giants. Ticket prices range between $60 (£47) and $500 (£390).

Damage control in progress

Once the cancellation was deemed necessary, event organisers tried to reschedule the match between Barcelona and Juventus. They were aiming to reschedule for July 24 at the same venue, but they could not gain access to the arena due to the lengthy preparations that are being made ahead of another upcoming big event.

The Levi's Stadium is set to host back-to-back Taylor Swift concerts on July 28 and 29. Even though the Eras Tour concerts are still several days away from the proposed match day, the singer's production team needs the time to prepare the venue for the massive stage that she requires.

Likewise, it is unclear if the affected players will even be able to recover in time. It is understood that the sick players have been isolated from their healthy teammates and they have been required to wear masks in order to help stop onward transmission.

Fans are urged to attend the game vs Arsenal and the rest of the tour

In an attempt to limit the damage even further, Barcelona are inviting fans to head over to the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles to watch the game against Premier League side Arsenal FC. The event is set to be played on Wednesday, several days after the cancelled Juventus game. This leaves the players a good amount of time to recover, assuming that the virus has not spread even further.

For now, Barcelona assures that the match against Arsenal will push through. They will be expected to wait until the last minute to decide as both sides will try to avoid another cancellation. Of course, the opposing teams will also be concerned about catching the virus and having it spread amongst their own squads.

Apart from Arsenal, Barcelona are also set to face Real Madrid and AC Milan for the rest of the Soccer Champions Tour.