Josep Maria Bartomeu

[mssarm]

I thought Rosell tried to claim that Laporta ran up debt and wanted him liable for it??

You can't hold someone liable for running up the debt if it was pure business decision. Club may lose money and it's not always someone's fault. Rosell tried to prove breach of fiduciary duties on Laporta. You almost never win cases like this , especially with Laporta. But Laporta was spending like crazy and he indeed presented the club debts in funny way. The short term debt was presented as long term on financial statements, which was ticking bomb for Rossel. Rosell had the reason to be pissed, but taking Laporta to court was waste of money.

 

[JamDav1982]

You can't hold someone liable for running up the debt if it was pure business decision. Club may lose money and it's not always someone's fault. Rosell tried to prove breach of fiduciary duties on Laporta. You almost never win cases like this , especially with Laporta. But Laporta was spending like crazy and he indeed presented the club debts in funny way. The short term debt was presented as long term on financial statements, which was ticking bomb for Rossel. Rosell had the reason to be pissed, but taking Laporta to court was waste of money.

So essentially taking him to court to make him personally responsible for the debt is what he was doing?

 

[mssarm]

So essentially taking him to court to make him personally responsible for the debt is what he was doing?

Kind of. He was trying to prove that Laporta spend the money because he was careless, also for intentional misrepresentation on financial statements.

 

[mssarm]

If it was some made up case like some people are trying to portray here, judge would have never accepted it and won't even waste time on it. It went for trial, which means the case had merit.

 

[Zebulun]

Based on all the reports that ive read, he took him to court for 46.7M of undeclared losses during his 7 year tenure at the club. he wasn't suing him for "all debt" alot of major companies/ clubs operate with a manageable amount of debt.

 

[mssarm]

Based on all the reports that ive read, he took him to court for 46.7M of undeclared losses during his 7 year tenure at the club. he wasn't suing him for "all debt" alot of major companies/ clubs operate with a manageable amount of debt.

You are right, except for it is not "undeclared", it was misrepresented(short/long term as I mentioned above)

 

[Kohe321]

Anyway, what do you guys think is the punishment Barca could receive if Bartomeu loses in court and they decide to sanction the entire club? Dissolution was mentioned, which obviously won't happen, but is relegation even a possibility?

 

[jamrock]

The judge backed Laporta on the basis of assets being taken into account. I am not saying the judge was wrong or Rosell was right to take it to court as I dont think he was.

But the club had huge liabilities when Laporta left and the club debt when calculated in the way club debts always are was close to 600m and needed to be addressed.

So this idea that the club was left debt free is totally wrong in the way football debt is normally understood.

in what way are clubs debts always calculated in exacting terms?

 

[DonAK]

The 'debt' was very managable. Not very critical nor a disaster these guys made it out to be.

 

[khaled_a_d]

Anyway, what do you guys think is the punishment Barca could receive if Bartomeu loses in court and they decide to sanction the entire club? Dissolution was mentioned, which obviously won't happen, but is relegation even a possibility?

Can't see it happening ,Spain isn't exactly the most clean country when it come to governments and corruption though it is still probably better than Italy
Barcelona is too big and important and not owned by businessmen unlike Juver and we didn't bribe referees ,I think tax problems are less of a crime .the damage the Calciopoli caused for Italian football was imminent and so far look permanent
That would be in mind for the judges .they would like to punish us may be ,but they won't want the whole league to suffer from it and I am sure every court will be aware of that.relegate Barca and the league will take years to overcome the damage

 

[DonAK]

We're not getting relegated. LFP and Tebas would start shitting their pants if that ever happens. The league's value is gonna take a massive dump if we get relegated so that's completely out of question. I reckon Barcelona won't even have to lift a finger because the guys in the center would themselves ensure anything like that never happens.

While it's ideal for Barcelona to stay in Spain from a business and perhaps even a sporting perspective, it can be argued that Spain and LFP need Barcelona more than Barcelona need them.

 

[mssarm]

Anyway, what do you guys think is the punishment Barca could receive if Bartomeu loses in court and they decide to sanction the entire club? Dissolution was mentioned, which obviously won't happen, but is relegation even a possibility?

Barcelona violated fiscal policies and that has nothing to do with sporting activities, therefore relegation is impossible. Dissolution of the club for economic violations is not applicable in this case so worse case scenario we get hefty penalties and some executives will go to jail if malicious intent to hide taxes is proved. I read some Madrid based articles about possible dissolution, relegation or castration of club executives: it's all wishful thinking- not real substance there

 

[Barcaman]

castration of club executives

Sounds too extreme. Why not just flog them or throw them to the stocks?

 

[KingMessi]

Sounds too extreme. Why not just flog them or throw them to the stocks?

Can we exile them from Catalonia?

 

[Barcaman]

Exile is for leppers only.