Picture Credit: FC Barcelona
Spanish club FC Barcelona requires €500m to save the club from entering a financial meltdown as they are suffering from huge amounts of debt. While speaking to a Spanish media outlet, Barcelona’s Vice President for finance Eduard Romeu has expressed that the club has negative capital of €500 million. Hence needs the prior mentioned amount to save the club.
He said, “It's still critical, but the advantage compared to a year ago is we know where we are and we have detected the problem. We know what the drama is. The number doing the most damage is asset imbalance. The negative capital of €500 million. You could add €150m to that in losses this season if we didn't do anything. I said it before if someone wants give me €500m... That is what we need to save Barça.”
"It comes from what we inherited,"
Romeu was then asked whether the financial problems come from Josep Maria Bartomeu’s regime as the former President of the football club FC Barcelona. He said, “It is what it is. It comes from what we inherited. Things they did, things not done well, things they didn't do. If we talk about the Espai Barça, which is essential, it led to three years of less income, for example.”
"It was necessary to have a clear image of the situation,"
Eduard Romeu then talked about devaluing so many players last summer and addressed how the team took this ‘bold decision’ for improving the club’s situation. He said, “We knew it was a bold decision but it was necessary to have a clear image of the situation.”
“It was €160m in devaluations and the first deal we have done from there, the sale of Coutinho, we have seen that we still came up short - €17m short. It shows that it was not a cushion that we had just invented. The best thing was to do it, like now we have to attack the issue of deferred salaries and growing contracts that condition the upcoming seasons.”
The Blaugrana recently signed a four-year €280 million sponsorship deal with music streaming service Spotify that will start in July. Along with the company's logo on shirts and training kits, the rebranding also includes a change in the name of Barcelona's stadium to the 'Spotify Camp Nou'.