Barcelona are in a financial mess right now.

The Spanish giants have been devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the club's debt reportedly totalling over €1bn.

It's a sorry state of affairs for one of the biggest sporting institutions on the planet and they currently owe 19 other clubs a substantial amount in transfer fees.

According to a financial report released by Barcelona recently, they owe those teams a combined fee of €126m.

That's a serious amount of money and Liverpool make up a whopping €29m of that figure.

The €162m deal to take Philippe Coutinho from Anfield to Catalonia in January 2018 is the reason why, with numerous variables included in the package.

One of those worth €5m would come into play this season if the Brazilian plays seven more games for the Blaugrana, but they're reportedly not going to let that happen.

According to journalist Javi Miguel, Barcelona will seek to avoid using Coutinho for the rest of the campaign, even though he is scheduled to return from a long-term injury in March.

"One of the club's priorities is to save and he has variables for games played and doesn't want to pay more for him," Miguel said.

"Barça have to pay €5m more in 7 games and that will not happen..."

What an absolute shambles.

Despite the fact Barcelona will be competing on multiple fronts for the remainder of the 2020/21 season, they're going to avoid using their record signing to save €5m - which in a normal world, is spare change for the club.

When he's fully fit and at his best, Coutinho can be a game-changer for Ronald Koeman's side, but it looks like he'll have to wait for next season and a change of destination to weave his magic on the domestic scene once again.

The Brazilian's move to Camp Nou to link-up with Lionel Messi will now always be viewed as one of the most disastrous of the modern era.