FC Barcelona Laporta, on Messi's goodbye: "I'm not going to mortgage the club for 50 years for anyone, not even for the best in the world"
The
Barcelona
is at a breaking point. "The debt is
1,350 million euros
. More or less broken down, there are
673 million of bank debt
, 389 with the players, either due to commitments acquired by
signing fees
,
loyalty fees
or termination of contracts, plus deferred salaries, 56 by
Espai Barça
commitments
, 90 million for litigation in which it is expected that they will not estimate our claims, the 40 million subscribers that we will not collect this year and some 69 million advance payment of 50% of the television rights of the League ", he explained the president,
Joan Laporta
. "The challenge is very great, but it does not scare us, because we will be able to reverse the situation," he said.
His press conference lasted just over two hours.
The numbers and the open letter from his predecessor,
Josep Maria Bartomeu
, were the main protagonists.
In the case of the former president, the current top leader did not hesitate to emphasize that his letter was "
full of lies
" and denounced that it is an attempt to avoid responsibilities that he does not intend to consent to.
"It is the reaction of a people who
has led the club to ruin
. From their letter it appears that they know that there are irregularities in their management," added Laporta.
And in terms of numbers, how did this desperate economic situation come to be?
Based on your intervention, at least
four key points
can be identified
.
A "disastrous" sports policy
From Laporta's point of view, the management of the sports area has left much to be desired. Very especially, after
Neymar's
notorious escape
to PSG
in the summer of 2017. "Bartomeu says that sports salaries skyrocketed to compete with state clubs and with the
Premier League
. And it is not true. It is true that the Sports policy has been disastrous in recent years. Especially since the sale of Neymar for 222 million euros. They were spent disproportionately and at the speed of light. That shot up salaries and amortizations, and that's where we are. Now. The sports policy has been wrong, the proof is that we have not been doing well in sports in recent years. I think
La Masia should have believed more.
and make more proportionate investments, with more logic, "he argued.
A pay cut that wasn't
"The salary limitation policy with the League has also been very erratic. For the 2020/21 season, the limit was
237 million
, and it was approved with a mass of 417 million, which without reductions with deferred payments was higher than 600 . We are dragging all this down and
the League considers us a non-compliant club
. Now, we have been affected, because the League, in its first letter, only allowed us to register a squad with a salary expense of 83 million euros. " Laporta added that he also recalled that the previous board did not in fact achieve any reduction in that wage bill. What he did in this case was, as they say, hang the dead man on the next guy. "We found a
context of signings and an erroneous sports salary policy
, which also generates many damages for the entity.
The pyramid was inverted: veterans have long contracts and young people, short contracts, and that makes negotiation very difficult.
The reduction of 68 million was not such, it was to defer the payment, because we find different types of premiums included in the contracts, "he added.
Split contracts and "falsehoods"
The Bartomeu board, as Laporta explained, also split several contracts to avoid any type of inspection.
"It was all part of a management
modus operandi
that bypassed all internal and assembly controls. Invoices were split, such as those of I3
Ventures
, known as
Barçagate
, or Espai Barça, and the debt contracted was also divided, so as not to go through the assembly ", he denounced. Around Espai Barça, in addition, as he explained, there were also multiple irregularities." At Espai Barça, the eighth point of the Bartomeu's letter, we find another series of lies.
First, that it is based on a series of falsehoods, there is a lack of information and a lack of transparency.
More than 12,000 members had to go from first to third tier.
Nor is it reported that remodeling a stadium with a regular attendance of 85,000 people is complicated and involves unaffordable risks and expenses.
The project is undervalued, in many games.
The
Johan Cruyff
stadium
, for example, was budgeted for four million euros and cost 20, "he said.
The "milkmaid's account"
According to Laporta, the previous board calculated a budget for the 2020-21 season of 1,000 million euros, but it did so based on a series of assumptions little less than unrealizable. Very especially, in relation to
Barça Corporate
. "He talks about some letters of intent from some investors prepared to execute on account of 49% of certain rights.
Of course, if this happened, and the Super League, and CVC ... it is the milkmaid's account
. You already know badly that a president of Barça breaks the confidentiality of some contracts and implies that the club generates lack of seriousness. We have analyzed the letters of intent of each one of the investors proposed by Goldman Sachs and we have come to the conclusion that none was acceptable, "he stressed. "
That he says that signing with CVC would have been fixed, is not true
.
It represented mortgaging Barça's audiovisual rights for half a century.
All this shows the short-term vision that Bartomeu's board had, plugging holes in the short term even if you mortgage the long term.
This is how it has gone and that is why the inheritance we have is disastrous and the financial situation is dramatic, "he said.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
Joan Laporta
Neymar
Josep Maria Bartomeu
Neymar case
FC Barcelona
sports
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