Spanish League: Barcelona Reveal Financial Problems
Despite winning eight trophies in two seasons, the Catalan giants who are also the Spanish Champions are facing financial difficulties. Barcelona currently had their club elections, a process through which they select their club president. Sandro Rosell got voted in as the President of the club on June 13th and Rosell replaced the outgoing president Joan Laporta on 1st of July, 2010.
In 2003, Laporta and Rosell had worked together to promote Laporta’s bid for Presidency at the Catalan club. In the elections that followed Laporta’s presidential campaign was successful and he was made the Club President.
In 2005, Rosell and Laporta started having differences of opinion and conflicts emerged between the two, as a result Rosell resigned from his post of vice-president of sports at Barcelona and launched a scathing attack on the President.
Rosell claimed he had resigned because of the fact that Laporta had failed to carry out his original plan for the club’s future. He also remarked that there was a lack of transparency and democracy in the way that the club was being run. Rosell also commented on the affairs at the club saying that there was anarchy in all areas at Barcelona.
Regardless of these off-the-field boardroom troubles at the club, Barcelona have become one of the best football clubs in the world. They currently have Lionel Messi in their squad, who is presently the European player of the year as well as the FIFA World Player of the year.
Rosell, who is now the President of Barcelona F.C, revealed to the press that the club is suffering from a financial crisis. He said that the players at Barcelona have not been paid their wages for the last month because of the club liquidity problems. Rosell has already sold Dmitro Chygrynskiy to Shaktar Donetsk for 15 million Euros.
Dmitro’s transfer to Donetsk came as a shock to most people at the club, because despite his lack of first team appearances, Barcelona’s manager Pep Guardiola had expressed his wishes to keep the player at the club.
Rosell explained that his hand had been forced in this matter because of the situation at the club. He stated that his administration had inherited the club in a bad financial state and that Barcelona have now taken a loan to pay their players’ outstanding wages for the last month of June.
The new Barca’ president told a Catalan newspaper that the new loan amounted to 150 million Euros. He also went on to say that the banks are aware of the success of the club and have also confirmed their trust in Barcelona’s business plan which has been effective over the years.
Sandro Rosell also explained that Barca is not bankrupt because they are generating income and he also assured the supporters that there is no reason to panic, as the new administration has everything under control. Rosell said that more capital can be raised in two ways, firstly by selling players like Dmitro and secondly by taking loans from the banks.
Both of the above stated ways have already been employed by the club. Rosell was asked how Barcelona ended up in this situation despite making over 400 million Euros in turnover, and he replied by saying that the club had been spending more than its income in the previous years.
Barcelona have already signed David Villa for 45 million Euros regardless of this financial situation, the deal happened earlier on in the summer before the World Cup began. Rosell gave hope to the supporters by saying that the club still has a considerably large transfer kitty of around 89 million Euros to spend on new players.
Rosell also suggested that in his coming trip to South Africa, he will try to meet Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger and discuss Cesc Fabregas’s possible move to Barcelona. He said that Barca will not pay around 50 to 60 million Euros for the Spanish midfielder because that is an inflated price.
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