Following the forced departure of Josep Maria Bartomeu and the return to command of Joan Laporta, the Catalan club had commissioned an internal audit to learn more about its economic situation. The conclusions are terrible.
The hour of truth has come to FC Barcelona. Following the departure of the Bartomeu team in October 2020, the new culé president, Joan Laporta, was quick to order an audit. The reason is simple: the new Blaugrana strongman wanted to know where he landed. For several months, the management team had made no secret of the fact that it had had to face a much more worrying financial situation than it had imagined. Today, President Laporta held a press conference in which he unveiled the results of this audit. To set the scene, before this press conference, Barça published a press release in which it announced the color.
“The Board of Directors of Fútbol Club Barcelona, in an elementary exercise of responsibility, considered it necessary to know the economic situation of the Club, that is, the resources available and the debts due. To this end, an audit was commissioned from Deloitte, resulting in an outstanding debt of 1,173 million euros, losses of 481 million euros and a payroll 40% higher than those of its competitors. Deloitte’s work also revealed the existence of questionable economic transactions in specific spending areas that required further analysis. » Facing the media, Laporta then spoke, with a small particularity, however. The name of Josep Maria Bartomeu has never been mentioned. “Barça is content to establish the facts, not the responsibilities” which he leaves to justice.
Bartomeu singled out without being cited
“Today we announce sad news. We do it as an exercise in responsibility, but we are not part of those behaviors. It is not good news. I like to give good news and not news like that, but it has to be done. (…) It is the prosecutor who will determine the culprits. We want to clarify the facts. The socio has the right to know the economic reality. We are not pointing fingers. The Public Prosecutor’s Office has all the means to investigate these facts. Our obligation is to inform the members of these actions. The material authors of these actions must be identified. We imagined that there was a very bad economic situation, but the reality exceeded expectations. The audit detected some things that required further analysis. What we have denounced are undeniable facts, disproportionate payment transactions without reason. These are contracts with simulations. This is what the Office of the Prosecutor must determine, if these behaviors are a crime. We’re going to make it easy. I would point out that there was a recurring modus operandi which avoided internal controls and statutory controls. Economic operations that have not passed through the control of the council. Afterwards, the debt that was created did not pass through the Assembly. The most glaring are sports contracts and payroll. They had to be aware that it was skyrocketing and that it would be difficult to be competitive in the medium and long term. Then there are the concrete cases. We are talking about millionaire amounts, with off-market commissions that are difficult to justify. »
Statements that send shivers down your spine. A few moments after Laporta spoke, who also confided that Barça had reduced its payroll by €159 million, it was the economic vice-president Eduard Romeu who took the floor to give more details on the disastrous legacy left by the Bartomeu team. And again, the numbers are staggering. “The result says that we have a debt of 1,300 million euros: 389 million in deferred salaries to players, 160 million in player valuations, 80 million in disputes which we are convinced will not be decided in our favor. , 79 million television rights, 40 million subscribers, 56 million with commitments made by Espai Barça. If we want to be clearer: the last two seasons, we lost 600 million and only 135 correspond to the Covid effect. » Thanks WHO ?
