Marc Menchén, founder and CEO of 2Playbook and collaborator of SPORT, is a specialist in economics applied to sports. In this interview, answer the main doubts that the closing of the financial year of the 2023-2024 season has left at FC Barcelona.
What is the real figure at the end of the 23/24 season, the ordinary or the extraordinary one?
The real figure for the closing of 2023-2024 is the one that includes all operations, including extraordinary ones, and which shows losses of 91 million euros. Just as 2022-2023 closed with profits thanks to the 408 million from the Barça Vision operation, the latter closes in the red due to past and potentially future non-payments by investors.
What would it mean if they depreciated Barça Vision?
For the moment, the auditor has demanded that the 141 million euros that have not been received of the 200 million planned by Barça Vision be declared as a loss, but the club has not yet applied any correction to its 51% participation, which in 2022-2023 served to give it an additional income of 208 million euros.
Could the audit report hold any other surprises?
For accounting prudence, the auditor could include a warning or demand a correction of this valuation in the future if the situation of non-payments with Vestigia, Libero, Socios.com and Orpheus Media is not resolved. In the current year, it is not foreseeable that there will be new warnings to the past ones, such as the excessive dependence on extraordinary income in 2022-2023, but there will be accounting income from the reversal of expenses that burdened losses in the past, such as those from the litigation with Nike.
What result is valid for the club's accounting and fair play?
The net result that counts, both for the assembly and for LaLiga, is negative 91 million euros, since it is the one that includes all the club's activity in the last season, it is the one that the auditor validates and it is the one that will be voted on. the delegates at the next assembly.
What effect can these results have on financial fair play?
The closure approved by the board will be noted in the salary limit that LaLiga reviews. Grant Thornton's decision to urge Joan Laporta to deteriorate all payments linked to Barça Media will mean a 60 million cut to the 426 million euro spending ceiling that was granted to the club. It will no longer be because the employers' association chaired by Javier Tebas deducted from this limit the 85 million unpaid until last season. This cut can only be avoided with the presentation of new income with respect to those that are already assured, whether from new sponsorships, from non-payments suffered until now or from the sale of footballers.
What would be the real ordinary figure taking into account that the sale of players is considered extraordinary?
The losses in 2023-2024 would have been around 160 million, if the 80 million for transfers are not included, although we do not know if spending would have been contained then. The criterion that these incomes are recurring and not extraordinary is increasingly prevalent, a view that makes sense when the spending budget is increased only with the operations that are closed at the beginning of the year. In 2023-2024, the bulk of the sales occurred in 2023, with Dembélé, Kessie, Nico or Abde, while those of Chadi or Guiu were closed in the final stages of the year.
What other consequences can this result have (losses), in addition to fair play? Do these imply that they can lead to requesting another loan or to cash flow problems?
The losses of the last year also impact the net worth situation, which had practically been able to be redirected thanks to the 800 million in levers. This scenario may imply a deterioration in the club's credit quality, although it will not impact Barça's cash position, since the current losses are due to non-payments from a year ago.
Is it really true that there is a record of sponsorships as Barcelona says now?
Within Barça's commercial business it is necessary to differentiate what is sponsorship from other activities such as stores, the Camp Nou tour or hospitality. Until now, the record for sponsorship income was from 2018-2019, with 207.1 million euros. The growth in these years is explained by the contract with Spotify, as well as the half dozen brands that have entered through Espai Barça or those that have been associated with women's, such as Vueling or Bimbo. It is foreseeable that the potential improvement of Nike will be included in the projection of 250 million euros for 2024-2025.
What balance do you make of the numbers?
The closure of 2023-2024 reflects the consequences of the economic time trial to which the club has been exposed in recent seasons to overcome the limitations of economic control when it comes to strengthening the first team. That said, it is true that the profit of 12 million from ordinary operations indicates a trend towards the club's budget balance in a normal scenario that has not been seen since before the pandemic.
How do you see Barcelona's economy?
It seems that Barça is facing the last season of economic complexity, after a five-year cycle in which the drop in income due to the pandemic and the risks assumed in sporting matters have required numerous extraordinary operations (sale of 25% of the television rights of LaLiga and 49% of Barça Vision).
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