Former Barcelona president blames Laporta for Barcelona’s financial situation in strongly-worded
Former Barcelona president blames Laporta for Barcelona’s financial situation in strongly-worded
Former Barcelona president blames Laporta for Barcelona’s financial situation in strongly-worded
Earlier today, former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu wrote a letter to Joan Laporta, as relayed by Ara. The former president claims that it was his obligation to do so to clarify certain statements that manipulate the image of his board of directors.
In the first point, Bartomeu refutes Laporta’s claim of the previous board fabricating the accounts to cover up losses. He states that the losses in the pandemic were not considered to be considered negative economic results in the years affected by COVID-19 according to the Royal Decree 1162/2020.
He further states that the economic condition when his board took over from Laporta in 2010 was far worse than what the President is currently facing.
He then goes on to speak about how he and his board resigned voluntarily instead of waiting for the vote of no confidence in view of the health interest of members.
This, he states, prevented his men from working on the situation and alleviating the losses. Due to the early resignation, he says he is not responsible for the financial situation.
Bartomeu speaks about the 12% uniform wage reduction of all members of the staff and players as his effort to combat the circumstances. He again blames the new board for not following up on their initiatives.
The next point covered is that for Barca Corporate, an entry of strategic partners up to 49% for the joint exploitation of the four commercial assets: Barca Licensing and Merchandising, Barca Studios, Barca Innovation Hub and Barca Academy.
He says that if Laporta had agreed to continue with the operation, the club would have seen an inflow of 220 million Euros to reduce covid losses.
The following calculations presented by the former president aim to prove that this inflow of cash with the wage reduction would have been sufficient to register the new signings. He also talks about the Super League and its potential revenue as a solution his board considered.
Bartomeu blames Laporta and co. for improper sports planning of the 2020-21 season, an initiative started by the former board. He also questions the president on why the 16.5 million Euro case against Neymar was forgiven when it could have brought in significant revenue.
The former president defends the decision of his board to provide lucrative contracts to players and glorifies the same saying it featured the club as the most valuable club by Forbes. He says it was necessary to keep the club in the competition with other European Giants and the Premier League.
Continuing, Bartomeu talks about the Espai Barca project and the approval of the modification of the general metropolitan plan.
Finally, Bartomeu asks Laporta to make public the results of the audit, or any precise information so as to avoid suspicions or negative publicity to him and his board. He then signs off threatening legal consequences if it is not done.
