Eduard Romeu: "With Barcelona bankrupt, where was Tebas looking?"

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• Analysis Life without Messi, as without Cristiano: points of ruin, technicians on the wire and young people against the crisis

He is a great conversationalist. He does not look away, which reveals firmness. Nor has it cost him to get used to the battle of interviews.

(Barcelona, ​​1968), economic vice president of Barça and also of

, admits that he does not sleep more than five hours. The wakefulness is understandable.

Is Barcelona a bankrupt club? Barça is a technically bankrupt club. You can see it if you take the balance. Another issue is that it has assets that we can mentally account for. At the brand level it has an intangible value. Former president Josep Maria Bartomeu describes his management as serious and responsible. We will have to change the name of Bartomeu: from Nobita, said with affection, to Pop Mago. Here we do magic and it even gives us benefits . What am I gonna say. No matter how much he wants to argue, he has made a disastrous management: Bartomeu's board argues that, until the pandemic, no one spoke of their numbers. LaLiga also defends its management. Having LaLiga as an ally is not the best letter of introduction. LaLiga, through Mr. Tebas, is acting with a certain belligerence towards Barça. It is evidence.Where was LaLiga looking? Because this situation is not one day. It does not come from March 7 [date on which Joan Laporta wins the elections]. LaLiga has responsibility, as a minimum, as a supervisor. Tell me that certain parameters were met ... Hey, how were these parameters met? If to do this we have to value some players, do artificial operations to generate a profit and then the problem will be found whoever it is ... If you value a footballer at 60 million and then it turns out that he is worth ten, it is not correct . Someone has not been doing his job well. But what interest could Javier Tebas have? With this board of directors, the only thing we have is a discrepancy over a contract with the CVC fund that he wants us to sign yes or yes. And, as defined, it is unaffordable.It puts equity at risk. It is a 50-year mortgage that we cannot assume. Javier Tebas denies that it is a mortgage. He makes an interpretation in his own way. The only thing I say to Mr. Tebas is that this is a loan. And if he wants to dress it differently, I don't know. What we receive is a loan. You should remember that we are not a sports corporation. That we are something else. Maybe it speaks for an overview, and we know that they are probably trying to give a certain way to avoid a tax payment. I don't know how aesthetic it is. In our case, a participatory loan operation, as we could associate it, does not apply. The cost is obvious. You associate it with a loan or an assignment, this has a cost much higher than that obtained by Barça from financing. And we have shown it with a broken balance sheet.What LaLiga would have to do is not put our foot on top of us and put pressure on us. As has been seen, our pulse has not trembled. Not even with the condition that it cost us to get rid of the best player in the world. I would be conciliatory. And let's not forget that Barça is LaLiga's main shareholder. Between Barcelona and Real Madrid we have a weight of 90%. And it is not logical to have a problem with who represents 90%. Thebes said it was 40%. But even admitting it, it is not logical that a manager is facing the majority. Because he is not an owner, we pay him the salary among all the clubs. It does not make much sense. Is Barcelona negotiating with CVC now? We are talking directly with them. Without LaLiga being an intermediary? I have nothing to talk with LaLiga.I speak with whoever leaves me the money, not with an intermediary. In addition, Barça professionals have more negotiating capacity than those of LaLiga. We are a multinational, they are not. There will be those who would find it strange that Barça reached an agreement with CVC after Messi has left the club. We tried to reach an agreement with Messi, but we could not ask him to wait until the August 31st. We had a decision to make. But we didn't even see the CVC contract. It is shocking. And according to what they tell me, no club has seen it. Just a presentation. Maybe in LaLiga they thought that we would do the handstand to keep Messi. Of course we made a mega effort. Much beyond what is desired. The president was told not to worry, that they would sign Messi. But they didn't show him any paper.How could we sign something that we didn't know what it was? When we saw the

we already understood that it did not correspond to what they told the president. And there are things that go beyond the economic. Does the League have to endorse the business plan? Do I have to share my business plan with my competitor, Atlético or Real Madrid? Does Audax have to share the business plan with Iberdrola? I don't know if Mr. Galán would take it. Or Mr. José Elías. All this does not make any sense. Was it a real possibility to propose to Messi that he play for free? It was not a matter of proposing, only that, as the president said, some of us thought that the time could come when the player said: 'Why no, it's the club that has given me everything. ' He gave us a lot. But also Barça. Call me deluded. Or altruistic. Or innocent. Seeing the castling that made registration impossible, there was a moment when I thought: 'Now Leo will give a blow of effect and it will be free '. But what he did was very respectable.

Eduard Romeu, in his office at the Camp Nou.GORKA LOINAZ

Did Messi's last contract condition the club's economy? It would not particularize in Messi's contract. A set of contracts were formalized from the departure of Neymar. For fear that more people would leave, they went crazy. There were a series of signings at exorbitant prices, with also exorbitant chips. If you are in there, you see players who have not won anything yet who come with very high conditions, and you are the patrimony of the club ... It is normal for them to say: 'What about mine?' I am able to understand all positions. I am not saying that it was the will of President Bartomeu. Certainly not. But there is a time when the management is so dire that in the end you inflate and the only way to comply with the League and Thebes is to be very imaginative. And this is where I say that, watch out,you make a big ball and leave it to others. I invent figures, that you start by charging eight million, then go to 20 and end up with 30. Or that you sign them that, when they comply with the contract, they will charge a certain amount. That they cannot put it as fixed because it computes in Fair Play, but they include a variable just for coming to work every day. This is cheating. What is the current state of the Camp Nou? The Camp Nou has many pathologies. They were known. I heard Mr. Jordi Moix, former equity vice president of the previous board, acknowledge that his board of directors had addressed this issue. A report was presented to them. They do not have to be technical, but that is what those companies that are dedicated to it are for. What worried me, when we saw the reports, is the appalling ridiculous we would have made had we allowed the field to reopen earlier.We couldn't have. There were very important pathologies to be solved. It is an old stadium. Some works were already left for Espai Barça, which we are already 15 years late. The most important thing was leaving. But there were a series of essential works for safety reasons. In those reports it is said that the fans were at risk. Just to think that my two nephews, my brother, or my mother, have gone through that risk coming to the stadium with the rest fans and partners ... It does not leave the board of Bartomeu in a good place. I prefer not to rate it. Can these pathologies be reproduced? The Camp Nou is from 1957. The actions that have been carried out guarantee safety. We are in a scenario where we have to determine what to do. That is why we streamlined Espai Barça. It is doing everything new.The other option is to have to invest a large amount of money, which we have not yet quantified, and to make the stadium last a few more years. But not a hundred, which would be Espai Barça. From a financial point of view it would be a very bad business. Adding a credit of 1,500 million euros when it comes to obtaining a 595 million, is it acceptable? It is not a loan, it is a project. We finance a project. It is an open book. Today the field and everything that is annexes, restaurants, the store and others, generates an income of about 270 million annually. The projection is that Espai Barça has to allow to enter 470 million. That is, 200 more. The first 270 that are already there are from the club. And the other 200 go to a separate account. And on that account, which belongs to Barça, two thirds will go to the club's budget as ordinary income (how to deal with signings,which is what the follower claims) and the other third to the repayment of the operation. We do not incur any type of risk. Real Madrid leaves the Covid era with benefits and a practically remodeled Bernabéu. Why this difference? Because the management has been different. If here they had done their homework and applied another model, the situation would be equivalent. Florentino Pérez has done a good management. But luck must be sought. They have found it when building the stadium with Covid cost. That is, with the stadium closed. That has worked in their favor, although they had the project prepared. If here the Bartomeu board had done what it should, which was to dare to pass Espai Barça as an assembly in 2019, we would have taken advantage of that Covid moment like Real Madrid. And we would have minimized the impact, not only economic, but also social.That cost was not borne by Bartomeu. When will Barcelona be competitive again at the level of the great European clubs? And I speak to him on a sporting and economic level, I ask for two years of patience. We need that period to carry out our strategic plan and to be competitive again in the transfer market, which is what everyone wants. Obviously we will try to shorten that period. But we must be very rigorous. I speak of two years to reverse the situation. But we have a backbone called Masia, some relevant young players that must be pampered, molded. Our coach [Ronald Koeman] is doing that very well. And there are still some injured players to join. We have not seen the real Barça yet. But in order to have a skeleton again, which is La Masia,complemented by two or three more relevant signings, you have to wait a minimum of two years. And to reverse the situation of the asset imbalance, we estimate about five years. It is different to speak that a management has not been good than that it has been negligent or has even been criminal. What situation would we get closer to? Has the management been bad or has it been done voluntarily wrong? The management has been bad. It is obvious. That is not debatable. What degree at the point of bad faith or other circumstances? The other circumstances is where we would already enter into criminality, and that does not correspond to us. It is a very legal issue and that is why we are analyzing it through theIt is different to speak that a management has not been good to that it has been negligent or has even been criminal. What situation would we get closer to? Has the management been bad or has it been done voluntarily wrong? The management has been bad. It is obvious. That is not debatable. What degree at the point of bad faith or other circumstances? The other circumstances is where we would already enter into criminality, and that does not correspond to us. It is a very legal issue and that is why we are analyzing it through theIt is different to speak that a management has not been good to that it has been negligent or has even been criminal. What situation would we get closer to? Has the management been bad or has it been done voluntarily wrong? The management has been bad. It is obvious. That is not debatable. What degree at the point of bad faith or other circumstances? The other circumstances is where we would already enter into criminality, and that does not correspond to us. It is a very legal issue and that is why we are analyzing it through theand that does not correspond to us. It is a very legal issue and that is why we are analyzing it through theand that does not correspond to us. It is a very legal issue and that is why we are analyzing it through the

It will be our legal team who considers whether this is the case or not. Hopefully not. No one here intends to draw blood. But as for the point between bad management and bad faith, when one does something intentionally, he leaves, and leaves it to the other ... Good faith is not, what do you mean? Increasing contracts, as I said, they were a very common practice. Bonus for meeting them. Variable remuneration concepts that are actually a fixed one. If I tell you that I pay you to come to work, it seems that it is very acceptable. And excessive commissions to agents? That is what is being analyzed. There are several points, including this one. There are established percentages in the market regarding commissions. When they are very different from the usual ones, they must be analyzed. We are not saying it corresponds, but it must be seen.And the splitting of invoices? That is another story. It is an issue that has already been prosecuted and where we must be very cautious and discreet. The so-called Barçagate has been prosecuted. But, have invoices been divided into other concepts? Yes. For example, in the same debt. It has increased in two and a half years by 500 million. The net financial debt started at 168 million and has reached 680. Those 500 million, which is a very relevant figure, have not passed through the assembly. And the Covid is not to blame for that. They were probably not committing any illegality, but it is unsightly. In the assembly that we recently had, we requested the approval of a very important loan. It was granted to us. But at that time we already said that, despite being under our faculties,we carried out a bridge operation of 80 million to pay payroll, transfers, etc. When you are transparent you free yourself. And I love being searched because I have nothing to hide. I do not understand who is not transparent. My thinking can go the other way. If someone is not transparent, why is he not?

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Know more

• Leo Messi

• Barcelona

• Ronald Koeman

• Javier Tebas

• Joan Laporta

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