Worries over Barcelona's finances

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/929639/barcelona-president-'concerned'-over-club-finances?cc=5739

Barcelona president Sandro Rosell says that he is 'concerned' by the financial state of the current European champions and has urged the club to start to balance the books.

Rosell has been a vocal critic of the way the club was run under former incumbent, Joan Laporta, whom he displaced in 2010, and despite the fact that they have €45 million available to bring in new players in the summer, believes a period of prudence is required.

"I am concerned about the club's economic sustainability. We have to balance the books. In two or three years we hope to be a solvent club,'' he told TV3. "When we came in, we found the debt was much bigger than they had told us. We negotiated a syndicate credit with the bank. We were very worried because we had no money to spend."

Rosell maintained that the club do have a significant transfer budget this summer, but that it was not a long-term solution.

"We have sorted out the situation and what the economic area has achieved means we have €45 million to spend on transfers this summer plus sales. We have a business plan, and after what we have said, the banks trust us and have given us this credit. But you have to pay credit back."

Barca's debts are reportedly in the region of €450 million, however, they are still chasing the big-name signing of Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal and are believed to be closing in on Alexis Sanchez from Udinese for around €35 million.

Just sharing, hopefully Barca improve on that debt situation.

Tactics to lower Alexis' price

We dont need Cesc or other big names tbh. We are already world-beater without them.
Anyway according to Rossel will be solvent in 2-3 years. That will be huge if we actually make it.
Btw how our debt still 450m? Wasn't it supposed to decrease from last year?

Tactics, mind games, bull shit... call it how do you want.

I wanted to start a thread about Barca's finances for some time. I'm glad someone else did.

I've read in another web site that Barca's debts are over €520 mm. At €450-520 mm, it's a huge amount of debt. According to totalbarca.com, the club earned €445 mm during 2010 and this included sales of real estate (non-recurring). The debt is still over 100% of 2010 total revenues. The worst effect of a huge debt load is that the club might need to sell its assets (players?) and it won't have enough funds for transfers to remain competitive with other top teams.

As a finance professional, I find it pretty disturbing. Clubs aren't utilities that can load on a lot of debt before getting into trouble. Considering the problems that Greece is experiencing, the other countries in the same boat (PIGS - Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain) will also experience the same problems perhaps in different intensity. This means that our club will experience more problems in financing our debt going forward.

Does Barca FC prepare audited financial reports? I would be interested to see the maturity of the debt that it has. If the debt matures at the wrong time (too much, too soon), the club might be forced to declare bankruptcy and the debtors will have a claim on its assets.

I've worked selling assets of distressed companies before so I'm pretty unhappy to hear that my beloved club is facing financial problems. The key to a turnaround will be to control costs while growing revenue. Cost control is the reason for the abandonment of some sports and the sale of some assets. We're lucky that Barca hasn't sold any of its core players like what Valencia is doing.

Barca needs to improve its revenue position too. One idea is to sell subscriptions to stream its games to countries where the rights aren't owned by the big sports networks. In the US, I think only Gol TV has the rights for Barca games.

Pinoy I believe the financial reports are available on Barca's webpage. Last I checked, which admittedly was a year ago, Barca only had 100-200 in ST debt.

I read Rossell is cutting down on security and asking people not to print in color anymore to help save cost.

If true, that's rediculous

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Pinoy I believe the financial reports are available on Barca's webpage. Last I checked, which admittedly was a year ago, Barca only had 100-200 in ST debt.

Rosell keen to avoid transfer talk


President Sandro Rosell has asked for discretion regarding possible new signings. Looking back at the season, he highlighted the 5-0 win over Madrid, the triumph at Wembley and the recovery of Abidal.


After making his institutional statement, Sandro Rosell turned to sporting issues. “It is an honour to be president of the club. Especially now, after the most titles ever in a year in club history.” Asked what he’ll remember most, Rosell said “the 5-0 win over Madrid that was seen around the world, the win at Wembley, because it was our fourth European Cup, and when Abidal played again at the Camp Nou”.

He also said that the hardest decision was that to sell Ibrahimovic. “It was very difficult, but I don’t doubt that it was a great decision.” As for self-criticism, he remarked that “the pending issue is probably improving communication. We’ll work on it. We have done a lot of things until now but perhaps we should have spent more time explaining them … I also made a big mistake by holding a charity sweepstake”.

Transfer talk

But the pressmen were hungry for information about potential new inclusions in the first teams. “It is not in our interest to talk too much about signings” he insisted, but despite calls for discretion, he could not prevent the name of Cesc Fabregas coming up yet again. “Who wouldn’t want to come to Barça? I suppose Cesc wants to, like most people, but I don’t what’ll happen. If he is interested, then we will act rationally. We aren’t going to go pushing the boat out too far.” In his opinion, the Arsenal midfielder is worth “less than 40 million.”

As for how much the club might spend on new players, Rosell said “the ideal thing would be too observe the business plan, which is to put aside 45 million a year plus sales. If that’s not enough to give the coaches what they want, we can advance some of the money budgeted for the following year”. He also insisted that the young players groomed at La Masia will only leave “on loan or with an option to repurchase”.

Austerity and competitiveness

He also spoke about the adjustments to the budget to be invested in other sports teams. “Their competitiveness will not be affected” he said. “Prices are only rising in football, in the elite, because of the influence of teams like Chelsea and Manchester City. There is deflation in other sports and we know that through good management we can build teams that are just as, if not more, competitive on a lower budget. Because our competitors will have to reduce their budgets even more”.

“We had a debt of 532 million and the fiscal year will close with one of 483. Reducing the debt by 50 million and still producing sporting excellence is not easy. We have shown that you can be austere and still be very competitive” he said with pride, and thanked his directors for helping to do that. “Our work will involve thinking about the club in general, and it is already in a better state than how we found it. And we will do that through decisions that the people won’t always understand”.

`Source: http://www.fcbarcelona.cat/web/english/noticies/futbol/temporada10-11/06/16/n110616118030.html

Debt around €200-300M is "normal" for big clubs.

Pinoy_Cules wrote:I wanted to start a thread about Barca's finances for some time. I'm glad someone else did.

I've read in another web site that Barca's debts are over €520 mm. At €450-520 mm, it's a huge amount of debt. According to totalbarca.com, the club earned €445 mm during 2010 and this included sales of real estate (non-recurring). The debt is still over 100% of 2010 total revenues. The worst effect of a huge debt load is that the club might need to sell its assets (players?) and it won't have enough funds for transfers to remain competitive with other top teams.

As a finance professional, I find it pretty disturbing. Clubs aren't utilities that can load on a lot of debt before getting into trouble. Considering the problems that Greece is experiencing, the other countries in the same boat (PIGS - Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain) will also experience the same problems perhaps in different intensity. This means that our club will experience more problems in financing our debt going forward.

Does Barca FC prepare audited financial reports? I would be interested to see the maturity of the debt that it has. If the debt matures at the wrong time (too much, too soon), the club might be forced to declare bankruptcy and the debtors will have a claim on its assets.

I've worked selling assets of distressed companies before so I'm pretty unhappy to hear that my beloved club is facing financial problems. The key to a turnaround will be to control costs while growing revenue. Cost control is the reason for the abandonment of some sports and the sale of some assets. We're lucky that Barca hasn't sold any of its core players like what Valencia is doing.

Barca needs to improve its revenue position too. One idea is to sell subscriptions to stream its games to countries where the rights aren't owned by the big sports networks. In the US, I think only Gol TV has the rights for Barca games.

Sell Messi and sack Pep!!!!!

Pinoy, you say that Barça is not a utility, and then you start talking as though it's a country, comparing it (with an insulting acronym) to Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. The idea of Barça going bankrupt and having its assets seized is one of the most absurd scenarios I've ever seen on a discussion site. The people of Catalonia would donate their wedding rings and much more to keep that from happening -- not to mention philanthropists.

This sky-is-falling talk is either misguided, or you are kidding us -- "finance professional" or not.

Can anyone translate it? http://www.marca.com/2011/07/14/futbol/equipos/barcelona/1310641913.html

i don't even know how much of this to belive. I mean, everyone knows how much rosell hates laporta, he might just be doing this to make laport look bad and then make himself look like a hero when he clears the debt...

edit: You should read this, this is a pretty good blogg about barcas finance from last year.
What's Happening With Barcelona's Finances?

"The auditors’ proposed changes reduced revenue from €446 million to a still impressive €409 million, while increasing costs from €429 million to an unprecedented €478 million."


LOL xD

Can someone post english link to that report which AS published about our bad finances? I think we won't be buying players during upcoming transfer window, I can see it end with only one LB.

That is worrying if true!!!

We had "bad finances" last year and yet, Alexis and Cesc was still bought.

Chill out.

yeah but last year we actually won CL, and that was some cash input right there;)

At some point the debts must return so continuing with bad finances after we sold our soul to Catar Foundation seams rather disappointing.

Funny when we got eliminated yesterday the first thing that popped in my head was our bad financial state and how we won't be having Champions League or La Liga title money coming in.

Not winning actually helps us, we won't have to pay some of the ridiculous bonuses we usually do that offset the CL earnings. Also, Alexis' transfer had provisions in it that we pay more if we won la liga and the CL, which we haven't. Financially, it's a bit of a blessing in disguise.