In an exclusive interview, Barcelona's financial director Ferran Olivier gave an in-depth analysis of the club's current complex economic situation and answered key questions such as the renovation of the Camp Nou stadium, the club's debt, and its financial health.
Being the financial director of Barcelona during this historically difficult period must not be easy.
It's not easy, to be honest, it requires imagination. We took office in March 2021. At that time, the club had a negative equity of 450 million euros and the situation was in chaos. I clearly remember that when I was handed over to the management committee, they gave me several envelopes explaining the status of the club. The first envelope told us that there was no money left to pay the payroll. It was already after March 20th, and there were only nine days left before the end of the month, so we were unable to settle wages. Another envelope said: 'If you sell the clothing company and Barcelona Production Company, you can get 200 million and solve all the problems. ’ But we had 450 million in negative equity at the time, and 200 million couldn’t solve any problems at all.
What is the current situation?
We have reduced (negative equity) to about 150 million to 155 million euros. You can't do economic magic. See, it's simple. If a normal company had negative assets of 450 million like when we took over, it would have entered bankruptcy administration procedures long ago.
What made you decide to make such a large-scale renovation of Camp Nou?
If we had not decided to transform Camp Nou at that time, we would have sentenced the club to death forever. If we had just renovated it a little bit and spent $40 million, we might have solved our financial problems at the time. But this board doesn’t want to be short-sighted, but rather long-term. Other teams are building new stadiums as a way to generate a revenue stream and become more competitive in the future. That is the moment we must act.
What is Barcelona's current financial health?
I think Barcelona has a normal financial situation now. We came out of a complete economic disaster, which was a bankrupt situation. Today we can say that our situation has normalized. Yes, we still have negative equity of 150 million. And we ended the year with a negative non-recurring profit and loss (loss of 17 million euros), but a positive recurring profit and loss (profit of 2 million euros). Positive recurring profits and losses for two consecutive years indicate that a company is beginning to function normally and that the business is beginning to have a healthy financial position.
What is the current operating situation of Barcelona Production Company?
Now I am starting to have income. We couldn't even issue an invoice because of previous issues. This company will no longer depreciate and will function normally in the future.
Did Laporta's board save Barcelona?
Without a doubt. Let me give you an example. We could have made a decision in 2021: 'Hey, the economics handbook says, in this economy, don't spend money on new stadiums. ’ If we only thought about football politics we might have good financial results... but we would ruin the club. We will ruin the future.
What is the club’s current total debt?
It's easy to see. The economics handbook tells you that it is the sum of liabilities. The debt is approximately 2.5 billion euros, but this already includes part of the cost of Barcelona's new space. This is absolutely not worrisome. "Forbes" magazine said that Barcelona's company value is 5.6 billion euros. Moreover, Dezhuan also said that the value of Barcelona's lineup is 1.1 billion euros. Do you know how much we put on our balance sheet? 180 million. Why? Because all our players come from the youth training. They are not capitalized. Yamal has zero on its balance sheet. His value in Dezhuan is 250 million.
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