In front of just over a hundred senators from the FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta He reiterated on Wednesday at the Auditori 1899 that his board of directors has managed to get the club out of collapse. In other appearances he had used the UCI metaphor. Imperceptible among the veteran partners present some note of disagreement. Neither was there when he praised the financing plan of the Espai Barça. Not even when he repeated that his board will leave as a “great legacy” a new Camp Noua new campus and also, despite the evidence to the contrary, a new Palau.
However, outside of that comfort zone that is a shareholders’ meeting, the alarm bells about the current economic situation are getting louder. Suddenly a fear of the fragility of FC Barcelona and what is perceived as a stealthy loss by members of control over the club’s affairs seems to be emerging publicly.
The feeling of threat has been fostered by the multimillion-dollar Espai Barça agreement, whose guarantees in the event of default in the repayment of the debt would jeopardize ordinary income and would imply external management intervention.
bleak outlook
This Thursday spoke Victor Font of all this, the candidate of the almost 17,000 members in the last elections. The panorama could not be described in a more somber way: “The club is worse than two years ago in terms of numbers: we have more expenses, more losses, more debts and less patrimony, and that is not opinions, but data”, he stated in a studied staging.
Font, who usually comes to the fore once a year, is the most audible voice that has been heard against the management of Laporta, which has lived with a certain environmental placidity since it took possession more than two years ago. The charisma of him and the League of Xavi they have allowed him to reign freely.
It remains to be seen now how Font’s message, which joins the one that a group of partners, also concerned about the direction of the entity, has been trying to transmit for a few weeks, has penetrated Barcelona opinion. Led by Jaume Llopiseconomist and former member of the Barça Space Commissionthese partners have sent to the Economic Commission of FC Barcelona a couple of burofaxes in which they denounce the financial plan of the Espai Barça, which they describe as “reckless”.
Summarizing its content a lot, these partners, who represent all the opinion groups that made themselves known with the motion of censure on Josep Maria Bartomeu, criticize that the absence of the Palau in the Espai Barça project is a “flagrant breach” of the commitment to the Assembly. They denounce that the interest rates are higher than those announced (up to 7.1%). Concerns about de-heritage and future income. And, ultimately, they feel cheated by the Government of Laporta after seeing through the media the securitization fund contract, created to frame and channel the money of twenty investors (1,472 million).
growing contract
Llopis, contacted by this newspaper, also considers Font that “the economic backpack that Laporta will leave will be bigger, heavier and more serious than the one that Bartomeu left.” He leads a mobilization of partners who define themselves “as concerned and angry”: due to the seriousness of the economic situation, the lack of transparency and mistakes that evoke the past (“A Lewandowskiat his age, they have signed a growing contract, just what we criticized of Bartomeu »).
“We have the right to information, to know what we have signed,” he claims. The securitization fund is at the center of his efforts. Laporta said on Wednesday that the financing plan has been achieved “without costing the members money, it does not put sports management or the club’s assets at risk or the club’s property.” Listening to this statement generates enormous skepticism in Llopis. «By 2028 we have to return 800 million. It’s just impossible.”
One Haaland a year
In the event of non-payment of the debt, which should come from the income of the new Camp Nou, the fund, having priority, would collect from other assets. He even reserves the right to impose an auditor who would decide, as he comments to this newspaper Marc Ciriafinancier and expert in Barça’s accounts, “whether or not it is appropriate to spend on the signing of a footballer.”
The Economist Carlos Tusquets, former president of the Management Board before Laporta took office, believes that the board harmed itself by making changes to the Camp Nou project, which delayed the start of the works. «If it had started the day after winning the elections, we would now be paying five interest points less. That is equivalent to 75 million per year, that is, a Haaland a year,” he told this newspaper.
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Font assured yesterday that “we have 1,000 million ordinary losses in the last two years without the levers.” Reasons for alarm. To worry about the future of the entity. “Who pays, rules. And now those who pay the most are the investors, ”Tusquets drops. “We can end up being directed from an office in Madrid or New York,” remarks Llopis, who hints at new actions soon.
“I risk both arms that from minute 1 one way to obtain new income will be with the significant increase in the price of season tickets in the new stadium,” concludes the sports industry analyst, Marc Menchen.