Barcelona has been immersed in a deep economic crisis for more than five years. A crisis that was hidden with accounting engineering until 2020, impossible to hide after the pandemic. With more than 1,000 million euros of debt and a budget that, despite having qualified for the quarter-finals of the Champions League, it does not know if it will be able to meet it, the Barça entity suffers a new setback: the resignation of Eduard Romeu, vice president club finances. “I have to start new business projects, with complexity. I have chosen some good traveling companions, but I need absolute dedication that does not allow me to combine my position at Barcelona,” an emotional Romeu explained his goodbye. President Joan Laporta, affectionately, responded: “You have been a key person in the economic rescue.”
Barcelona’s financial rescue, in any case, is still up in the air. Although Romeu and his team have managed to reduce the operating deficit of 200 million, the club has still not managed to reverse its financial problems. “All this had to be combined with the viability plan, which had to be carried out in the shadow of the extraordinary operations,” Romeu recalled. The first year of Laporta’s new management, that of the 2020-2021 campaign, closed with 481 million in negative. The idea, then, was to inflate the red in the accounts (depreciation of players and write off provisions) so as not to compromise the guarantees, at that time, of 15% of the budget. The second season, thanks to the levers, ended with 94 profits, just like the last one with 301, under the same asset sale formula. With no jewels to sell and the Camp Nou under construction, the problem lies in the current balance.
The Barça entity has yet to collect 40 million from the company Libero, which had bought 24.5% of Barça Studios. At Barça they understand that the fund will not pay a new maturity of 30 million and, in addition, the club adds a gap in the budgets of another 30 million, as a result of a miscalculation of the trip to Montjuic and other unfulfilled items. In total, Barcelona needs to raise close to 100 million to balance the year. “When we started this, we were all clear that there was no one to take charge of the club’s situation. Laporta’s bravery and daring have made us capable. We still have to make complex decisions and we need the final point to reach splendor,” Romeu stressed. The club has not announced who will be the new financial manager of the board. Power, in any case, will remain in the hands of treasurer Ferran Olivé, as close to Laporta as he is distant from Romeu.
Romeu had become vice president of Barcelona thanks to the resignation of Jaume Giró, who was the leader of the economic part of Laporta’s campaign and left him before assuming any position on the board. Without Giró, Laporta needed close to 40 million on the horn to comply with the guarantees in LaLiga. José Elías and his Audax Renovables appeared with the condition that Romeu, his trusted man, had a voice and vote on the new board. When the Higher Sports Council repealed the endorsements, Audax left Barcelona. This was not the case with Romeu, until this Thursday.
He is not, however, the first to leave Barcelona. He is also not the first to do it for “personal matters.” When Laporta took over, the executives related to Bartomeu left. Among them, Albert Soler (director of the professional sports area), Román Gómez Ponti (head of the legal area), Òscar Grau, (general director), Pere Jansà (head of the social area), Maria Vallés (director of the Foundation), Guillem Graell (brand manager), Enric Llopart (digital department manager), Ramón Canal (head of medical services), Bill Mannarelli (chief executive officer of Espai Barça) and Raúl Cabrera (sales director of the Stadium, Tour, Hospitality and Ticketing).
So far everything is predictable. Laporta, true to his custom, wanted people he trusted by his side. But the exodus has continued. And he does it en masse. Romeu is the 22nd important position that leaves the club. The former are Jordi Camps (commercial director), Ramon Planes (technical football secretary), Enric Llopart (digital area), Ferran López (security chief), Carles Folguera (methodology area), Markel Zubizarreta (female football director), Raül Cabrera (sales director of the Stadium), Mike Puig (director of the Masia and the Barça Genuine Foundation) and Franc Carbó (director of sports management). Few departures have been as striking as those of the “Messi of the finances”, Ferran Reverter (director general of the club), in February 2022; that of the manager of football, Mateu Alemany, in August 2023; that of Àlex Barbany (director of Espai Barça), in September 2023; and that of Maribel Meléndez (corporate general manager), last February. “Barça is a family business”, boasted Laporta. In the year-end photo, however, there are fewer and fewer relatives.