Barça presented its accounts for the 22/23 season on Wednesday, where, it says, it has made a profit of €304 million (thanks to the sale of its TV rights for the next 25 years in exchange for €400 million) and has announced, through its economic vice-president, Eduard Romeu, that the aim is to never have to resort to these famous "levers" again. For the time being, the budget for this current season, 2023-24, already reflects that will, with an income forecast of 859 million euros which, together with expected expenses of 832 million, should endorse the gradual revival that the Barça entity says it is carrying out. In a year, moreover, in which box office revenues will suffer by about 78 million euros, according to his calculations, due to the "exile" in Monjuïc while the new Spotify Camp Nou is being built.

"The will is this: we hope that the concept of leverage will disappear. We even have two approved and unused trades. I would like to highlight that we are able to do this in a very complicated year, that of Montjuïc. If we add the 78 that we can't have in terms of Camp Nou box office and the 40 in television rights, they would be numbers to show off. If someone comes and makes us a stratospheric offer, we will have to study it, but that is our wish," said Romeu, who pointed out that, without levers in between, the results of last season, which recorded revenues of 1,259 million euros and expenses of 1,165 million, would have been aligned with the real losses experienced during Josep Maria Bartomeu's last stage at the helm of the club.

"If we take out the €800 million from the levers, €400 million from the rights of LaLiga and €400 million plus Bridgeburg, in round numbers, we would also have to remove the counter-levers, such as the €48 million at the Espai Barça, or the €100 million from various existing salary backpacks. In that case, we would go to those 200 million euros that Barça has been losing since the 2017-18 season. Now, the numbers are more public, because we are more transparent and we expose them in the assembly so that they are known," said the Barça vice-president, who, despite having pledged "not to draw blood" from the previous meeting, could not help but throw a new dart at them. Now, Barça's total debt is around 1.200 billion euros, despite the fact that some partners have gone so far as to claim that things were better under Bartomeu. "1,200 million is our slab today and the obsession and occupation of those of us who are here. To talk about how he was and how he is today is ignorance of how things were and how they are in terms of numbers. The interest, for example, was very different, and I would like to remind some that on May 31, 2021, salaries could not even be paid," he reiterated.

To improve its economy, Barça has implemented multiple cuts. Some are particularly painful, such as the closure of Barça TV. The most important thing, however, is to contain the wage bill, which, according to forecasts, will stand at 57% of the club's total income at the end of the current campaign, while in the previous one, without the famous levers in between, it would have been 79% of income, well above what UEFA recommends. "Everything is based on the Viability Plan. We look at some numbers and then you scratch and you see that there is a lot of spending that is related to income. It's a complex maneuver. Sports salaries were the item that was most oversized. We had to recover the enthusiasm of the people, we have fulfilled it and that has been noticed in the income. When we entered 2021, Forbes valued Barça at €4 billion and now it values it at €000.5 billion," he said. "We are still under observation, we have it in our hands, but we cannot get distracted," he said.

The Negreira case, Romeu insisted, has so far not had a negative impact on investors. "This issue doesn't have to affect us, although the travelling colleagues hear very populist shouts in all the stadiums. Helping doesn't help, but it's not a problem for investors either," said Barça's economic vice-president. "It's not that we tell them how things are, investors have their advisors. When you make an investment, you are concerned about the safety of your money and the return on it. It doesn't help that we have to justify things that we wouldn't like to have to justify, but everything is now in a process, which will take its course. The bad thing, I insist, is that you have to keep repeating this theme. Hopefully everything will be dismissed and that day we will be able to talk about other things," he added.

As for a possible transformation into a Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, Romeu said. "The model is indistinct. You can become an SA and do catastrophic management. I don't see the model, I see the management model. The €1.200 billion slab is important, but we have a long time to be able to address it. The key is management. If we are able to stop this bleeding and not lose money before opening the shutters, everything will be much better. The important thing was not to have equity in the negative, because that made investors uncomfortable. The Espai Barça, in this sense, is fundamental, an essential source of income to cover the debt and we are convinced that we will have more income. I don't see the interrelation with the issue of a transformation into a corporation," he said. "The concepts to retain are to put the plug in the drain, straighten out one's own accounts and compensate for the debt," he said.

  • FC Barcelona