Ferran Reverter gave a detailed explanation on the current financial situation of Barcelona on Wednesday afternoon. Despite the net loss of 481 million euros, the general manager of the club painted a fairly hopeful picture about the future. Barcelona can enter the players’ market during the winter break and is also on the way to extend the contracts of Ansu Fati and Pedri.
On Wednesday, Reverter announced the results of an internal due diligence investigation initiated by President Joan Laporta upon his appointment in an hour-and-a-half presentation. “Barça is naturally resilient,” the director opened the press conference. “The club has been on the verge of disappearing several times. Great players have left and the club has always moved forward. This board has a plan and our investors are convinced of it. Our greatest asset is our supporters: we have more than 400 million followers.”
“A lot of people think that when we came in to Barcelona in March, they knew what the situation was,” said Reverter. “The truth is we had no idea. We found negative equity and made a financial viability plan. We cut players’ salaries by €155 million and we started betting on our youngsters from La Masia,” he said. . Ronald Koeman is forced to call on his own talents such as Gavi and Nico González this season.
Reverter also lashed out several times at the previous administration under President Josep Maria Bartomeu. “It was very difficult to do research because we couldn’t get to information,” said the general manager. “The old board destroyed all emails every 90 days and they used personal laptops instead of the club’s.” As an example of mismanagement, Reverter mentions the disastrous purchase of Antoine Griezmann, which was obtained in 2019 for 120 million euros. “The night they brought him in, they realized there was no money to pay for it. Then they started looking for a loan of 85 million euros to get him anyway.”
However, there were also bright spots for Reverter. For example, Barcelona has a transfer budget of around twenty million euros in January. “Due to the departure of a number of players, we now have a positive Financial Fair Play balance,” the director referred to the departures of Lionel Messi, Emerson Royal and Antoine Griezmann. In recent times, Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) and Dani Olmo (RB Leipzig) have been mentioned as possible signings, although they are not expected to fit within the stated budget. Furthermore, Reverter announced that it was working hard on contract extensions. “We are on the right track in the talks about Pedri and Ansu.” Both players are on a contract until mid-2022, but Barcelona have the option to extend the contracts for another two seasons.
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