FC Barcelona ‘Need $535mn’ To Save Club

FC Barcelona need €530mn ($535mn) to save the club from financial ruin, according to their vice-president of the economic area.

Eduard Romeu conceded an interview to SPORT which has been published on Thursday morning in Catalonia. Within it, he quoted the mentioned figure and said: “It is what we need to save Barca”.

Asked if the club’s financial woes, which see them in debts of around $1.5bn, was the doing of current president Joan Laporta’s predecessor Josep Bartomeu, Romeu answered: “The situation is what it is.”

“It comes from heredity,” he added. “Of the things that have been done and have not been done well and of those that have not been done [at all].”

Separately, Laporta has remarked this week that when his board arrived after winning the election in spring last year, “Barca was dead”.

“Right now, we’re in the ICU,” Laporta went on. “The economic levers will allow Barca to go from the ICU to a regular room. And later on, we’ll leave the hospital and have a long life.”

The economic levers that both Laporta and Romeu have discussed in public are the sales of 49% stakes in Barca Licensing and Merchandising (BLM) and Barca Studios.

For the latter, Romeu confirmed that club “has offers” but doesn’t like them. For BLM, however, he said that the Catalans have a proposal “of €275mn ($294mn)” on the table.

“It’s a good offer if we take into account that everything Barca Corporate had been valued at €200mn ($214mn), but for us it’s not enough. To get more money we need time, which is the great sword of Damocles that we have. Time and patience,” Romeu demanded.

Yet with June 30 fast approaching when the contracts of players such as Ousmane Dembele expire, preseason beginning on July 4 and the 2022/2023 campaign getting under way in August, Barca are facing a race against the clock to balance the books in a manner that allows them to compete in Spain and on the continent.

Under pressure to accept La Liga’s CVC deal, there is also a neagative salary limit of -€144mn (-$154mn) to iron out.