Financial head-to-head Athletic Club v FC Barcelona

Barcelona and Bilbao both secured opt outs of LaLiga's recently secured private equity deal with CVC.

Barca president Joan Laporta said that the deal undervalued La Liga, while Bilbao put out a lengthy statement saying that "A 50-year strategic project should not be a prisoner of emergencies."

A significant part of Barcelona's current financial crisis is caused by the club's disastrous recruitment. Last weekend's opener with Sociedad saw three players with combined transfer fees of €350 million left out all together.

Bilbao can only dream of spending that much: their transfer activity is limited to the acquisition of Basque players. 

Although there is a huge gulf in club revenues, Bilbao and Barcelona share many similarities - not least that they represent two of Spain's four member owned clubs.