President Laporta reveals over a billion euros debt
Lionel Messi left FC Barcelona in tears as his new contract could not be homologated. One week later the club’s president might drive fans to tears again as the Catalan president announced a debt of 1.3 billion euros.
Full press conference:
The end of the financial year of the 20/21 season will bring losses of 481 million euros. This has been audited by Ernst&Young and presented to the league. The impact of the pandemic is 91 million euros.”
Bartomeu Board indeed is responsible for the financial year 20/21,” and that “if due diligence uncovers irregularities that no one will escape responsibility.”
The president refuted the argument if the Bartomeu Board had resigned “they could not make financial decisions and lost income.” “They did not lose 375 million euros because of the pandemic, it was 217 and if you have to apply the costs associated, it comes up at 91 million euros.”
“They presented a budget based on suppositions that if all turned out well, the 20/21 budget would have been 1 million euros in positive. That causes a financial and economic picture that is dramatic and very worrying.”
“They should have changed the method and invested in and believed in La Masia and made more proportionate investments in keeping with sporting logic … Compliance with La Liga’s salary caps was erratic and as a result the league is viewing us as a club that violates the rules.”
Espai Barça is based on a series of falsehoods and lack of transparency. As suggested, more than 12,000 members would be moved from the first to third tier. The project underestimated the costs and was disrespectful of the other sports sections. We shall be presenting a new financing programme to the Assembly and work can begin in the summer of 2022.”
First win post-Messi era
FC Barcelona won 4-2 vs Real Sociedad and that’s the only good news for the club. 30,000 fans came back to the stadium to salute their players and at the 10th minute they sang a tribute to Messi. This will be all-season logn, fans groups said. Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid are the favorites to win La Liga this year and FC Barcelona hope they can build something great for the future.
