Joan Laporta

Luftstalag14

Culé de Celestial Empire
If Manchester United and Liverpool get bought by the Saudis, things will be much harder for us for sure. Even for the likes of Madrid and Bayern that have healthy finances (on relative terms, Madrid has a sizable debt too, around 900m or so last time I checked but it already factored in their new stadium cost), they will feel the pressure. Clubs can no longer compete based on prestige (still matters), but increasingly on money and what money can buy, ie. sport project.
 

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
I don?t know about the inevitable part, if we can ride the storm out in the next 3-4 years (La Liga contender but not in the CL), we might be able to start seeing better days. The biggest threat to the club in terms of becoming a SAD is the debt, including the new 1.5 billion that we have yet to borrow for Espai Barca. If everything goes as planned, we will have to set aside 50m or so a year to repay the debt, and if Espai Barca is generating us the 200m (or 120m as they recently downgraded the forecast) extra revenue, we might be OK. Still worse off than Madrid and those state clubs but much better than today.

Question is how worse off than all those clubs? Can Barca exist in its current structure if the club isn't competitive on the pitch and transfer market in the coming years?

According to a lot of people involved in the football business and economists Sique Rodriguez talked with it's inevitable even if Laporta resist such a change: https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2022...cia-la-sociedad-anonima-deportiva-cadena-ser/

Seems like one of the first things Ferran Reverter did when he joined us was requesting a study about it which seemingly ended up being the reason he left. Probably because he sees the writing on the wall.
 

JamDav1982

Senior Member
Some of us have been saying this since Laporta came in.. it is inevitable and part of the reason they took the levers.. they can have the benefit of the cash now and say kept Barca with Socios when in fact all they have done is make it even more likely to happen in future. They know full well the levers is short term gain for long term financial contraints that wont be tolerated.

They will be long gone by time decision to go down that route is taken even though have played a part in it.

Politicians telling socios what currently want to hear as usual.

If Barca dont have a team that can compete in latter rounds of CL in next few years and are losing out in tens of millions revenue every season due to the levers it will make it much harder to rebuild as will have hands tied. In that scenario would not be surprised if Rerter or someone similar run with investment as their plan for future.. they may even have Messi involved in some capacity in their team if he doesnt forgive Laporta also.
 

Luftstalag14

Culé de Celestial Empire
Question is how worse off than all those clubs? Can Barca exist in its current structure if the club isn't competitive on the pitch and transfer market in the coming years?

According to a lot of people involved in the football business and economists Sique Rodriguez talked with it's inevitable even if Laporta resist such a change: https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2022...cia-la-sociedad-anonima-deportiva-cadena-ser/

Seems like one of the first things Ferran Reverter did when he joined us was requesting a study about it which seemingly ended up being the reason he left. Probably because he sees the writing on the wall.

I had seen Culemania talking about such gloomy forecasts too. I don't know, to me the next 3, 4 years are crucial as we don't have the extra money generated from the Nou Camp Nou and Nou Palau etc. and our revenue will be down, however during this period most of the high wage earners will also be gone and we will be forced by La Liga to slash our wage bill anyways, it all depends on whether we can do that (reducing the wage bill) while maintaining a relatively competitive squad. By that again I mean being a contender for La Liga and being qualified for the CL so that we don't miss out on some of the much needed CL money. Afterwards, with wage bill back to the normal level (I hope) and extra revenue from Espai Barca and BLM (one of the brightest spots right now), we should be doing much better financially and we should gain more muscle to help us retain and attract players.

Of course the debt is the elephant in the room. I still think if we can control our wage bill and expenses while expanding our revenue stream, we might be able to afford to pay that kind of debt repayment. As long as we can generate a lot of revenue and have the ability to repay, I don't see the debt to value ratio being a problem necessarily.

I can understand why Laporta shot the SAD idea down, no president wants to be associated with that, at least in the time being. If we were to do it, my fear is that we will lose control of the club. They might not just do what Bayern did with selling only 25%, they might start with 49% and once the floodgate opens, we might become minority-owned eventually or completely sold off.
 

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
Some of us have been saying this since Laporta came in.. it is inevitable and part of the reason they took the levers.. they can have the benefit of the cash now and say kept Barca with Socios when in fact all they have done is make it even more likely to happen in future. They know full well the levers is short term gain for long term financial contraints that wont be tolerated.

They will be long gone by time decision to go down that route is taken even though have played a part in it.

Politicians telling socios what currently want to hear as usual.

If Barca dont have a team that can compete in latter rounds of CL in next few years and are losing out in tens of millions revenue every season due to the levers it will make it much harder to rebuild as will have hands tied. In that scenario would not be surprised if Rerter or someone similar run with investment as their plan for future.. they may even have Messi involved in some capacity in their team if he doesnt forgive Laporta also.

I think once it becomes clear there is no other way out Laporta will either be gone or resign. He's too proud a man to have his name associated with one thing he said would never happen under him. Might be what caused some of the mini-exodus merely months into his tenure.

Need to get the Zara heiress Marta Ortega with her 60 billion fortune involved in some way :lol:

Barca's been mismanaged for way too long to find a way to dig out of this hole I'm afraid.
[MENTION=13941]Luftstalag14[/MENTION] the goal will be to have majority control I'm sure. Whether that will be possible will depend on how deep of a hole we're in. Becoming a S.A.D is not the solution to all our problems either. It can go both ways with us ending up with shareholders who will be happy with their dividends and not care much about the club competing.

But I have more faith in that solution than our sadly idiotic socis electing Presidents. What happens if Laporta's successor ends up being another retard like Bartomeu? The club currently have absolutely nothing in place to prevent another idiot like Bartomeu from ruining us even if the current board manage to ride out the storm.
 
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JamDav1982

Senior Member
I think once it becomes clear there is no other way out Laporta will either be gone or resign. He's too proud a man to have his name associated with one thing he said would never happen under him. Might be what caused some of the mini-exodus merely months into his tenure.

Need to get the Zara heiress Marta Ortega with her 60 billion fortune involved in some way :lol:

Barca's been mismanaged for way too long to find a way to dig out of this hole I'm afraid.

He wont resign wouldnt think.. he would try to appeal to socios not to lose that power and place himself as saviour of their involvement in club.

Would not give up power easily even if came to that.

More likely he keels over with a heart attack before then as looks seriously unhealthy these days.

It has already been reported the reason why Reveter left.. he saw that selling off stake in club as the answer and not the levers.

Laporta backed himself into a corner really he runs his mouth off at drop of a hat to say what he thinks socios want to hear and ran his electioin with no real plan but easy promises to socios on issues like this.

He just says whatever current thing he thinks will garner credit.. a week ago trying to claim Spain are a product of this Barca team.. now will be silent again.
 

Luftstalag14

Culé de Celestial Empire
I don't know if becoming a SAD will necessarily help us alleviate the immediate problems such as being able to buy and register players etc. I mean, if it is as simple as the owner(s) writing a big fat check to inject capital into a club, then I'd think the likes of Betis and Espanyol shouldn't have any problems with their allocated salary mass and registering players, because they could have just pumped in money into the club and increased their salary mass, no?
 

Luftstalag14

Culé de Celestial Empire
But I have more faith in that solution than our sadly idiotic socis electing Presidents. What happens if Laporta's successor ends up being another retard like Bartomeu? The club currently have absolutely nothing in place to prevent another idiot like Bartomeu from ruining us even if the current board manage to ride out the storm.

This part I agree with, as proud as I am of our democratic nature, the socis will pick the better of the two or three, or four available candidates etc., with zero guarantee on the suitability of any of them. That's the risk with any democratically elected institutions.

On the other hand, if we do become a SAD and we have some partial businessmen/women, funds etc. owners who seek to maximize profit, they might have better ideas on how to run the club and expertise on how to grow the club to be more competitive. The downside would be you don't know what their intentions are, people have all sorts of motives to own a club, wholly or partially, if their interests and intentions come into conflict with the interest of the club, it spells troubles.
 

serghei

Senior Member
The club should become a SAD. There's too much money in the game now with all those qataris and saudis, princes and emirs or what they are, and it drives the risk to enormous levels. The only ones who can take that kind of risk and operate with it are mega-rich multi-billionaires.

Even smaller level billionaires could be in danger.

They fucking made the sport a money-affair owned by oil states with little else involved.

It's either we sell the club or we completely change our model as a club. No more crazy superstar-wannabe signings. Sell better, be smarter on the market. Get better managers and give them more power. Stop being so stupidly political and obsessed with Barca DNA with players who aren't even that good to be worth it. And so on.

Plenty of things to improve. Not being able to sign the best rated players is not the main reason why we are in this mess.

But yeah, football is getting drenched in snobbery. Something for the mega-rich to spend money on. In this kind of climate, a fan-owned model will quickly go extinct at the top.
 
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khaled_a_d

Senior Member
The Super League is the way forward. Perez needs to revive the idea and execute the plan better.

Without political backing it won't happen.
75 years old Perez won't be there long term making that fight with British & French governments , UEFA, Liga clubs, Italian clubs etc
 

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
The Super League project is dead.

That is one of the reasons Liverpool’s owners and the Glazers are looking to sell their clubs acc to some reports.

What does a ESL even look like without PL clubs, Bayern, PSG, etc.

A glorified Spanish-Italian league?
 

serghei

Senior Member
It's not dead, but it's a very long long process, could take 20 years until something big happens. Certainly not something you can bank in terms of revenue that's for sure.

No SL, and with inflation in football being huge due to oil clubs fucking up the market with unlimited money, and the signal is clear. Barca and Madrid, especially Barca, can no longer afford the most premium sought-after players. And that means they need to up their scouting game, and their decision-making to stay very competitive.

Madrid are doing just that by tapping up talent very early. Barca can't even afford that, so you can't be signing scrubs like Ferran for 60m in these conditions. That is a luxury you don't have, so it better not happen again.
 
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Luftstalag14

Culé de Celestial Empire
ESL will never save us from our own fuckups and the disparity created by the state clubs. For the ESL to work, all participating clubs, including the English ones and PSG probably will receive the same amount of money as we and Madrid will. So if everybody gets 500m, we are still one of the poorest ones... :lol:
 

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