Barcelona are on the verge of bankruptcy, president Joan Laporta has revealed in his first press conference since the announcement of Lionel Messi’s departure.
According to Barcelona president Joan Laporta, as quoted by reputed Spanish journalist Guillem Balague, the Catalan club are on the verge of bankruptcy. This revelation was made in his first press conference since it was announced that Lionel Messi was departing from Camp Nou.
Barcelona are in all sorts of problems at the moment. The greatest player of all time, Lionel Messi is no longer at the club and will not represent the Blaugrana anymore. A news that has sent shockwaves across the world, but it is an eventuality that Barcelona must get used to now, as the 2021/22 season.
As shocking as Messi’s departure from Barcelona is, it is also quite ridiculous that the club, seen as one of the biggest, most prestigious outfits in the game, is on the verge of bankruptcy, as per Joan Laporta. The Barcelona president has also added that they cannot even register their new signings of the summer transfer window with La Liga just yet in what is proving to be a disastrous situation for them.
As quoted by Guillem Balague, Laporta said, “I am here to explain the situation about Messi… I need to say first, sadly we have such a bad financial past that means the wages are 110pc of the income. That means we have no flexibility… Situation is worse that we were told and what we had calculated based on official data.The debt is bigger than expected. That is linked to FFP of course.”
“The new contract with Messi could not be approved… On that, we don’t agree with the deal LaLiga has reached because it mortgages us for half a century. The club is above players, coaches, directors. The only possible way to go further with Messi had to do with that deal LaLiga has agreed but we disagree with. But we feel that is not right, the mortgaging of the club for half a century.”
“I am sad but I also think that we have done the best for Barcelona (not re-signing Messi). I don’t feel responsible for not fulfilling an electoral promise. We did agree a deal with Messi, but we could not register that agreement because of the wage cap. People to blame? The numbers the previous board made public were not right, they were much worse as the audit said.”
“Even without Leo we don’t have margin to manouver! We need to keep working to help our football directors to be able to take new decisions. We will have more than double financial loses that expected and announced for last season. There will be important income coming in. 65-70% is what is suggested as the percentage of wages related to income, and we are far away for it to be a healthy situation!”
Judging by Laporta’s comments it is clear that retaining the services of Messi could have done more harm to Barcelona than good. So, while the world will remain in a shock post the exit of Messi, Barcelona have to get settled into the post-Messi era, which has officially begun now following the press conference by Laporta.
