Barcelona VP finance Javier Faus has reported that the Catalan club suffered €77.1 million in losses last season, compared to a net profit of €11.1m the football season before.
The difference in accounts thus represents a gulf of €88m, despite Barca’s recent extension of credit from a conglomerate of Spanish banks, including banking heavyweights Banco Santander and La Caixa.
In total, Barcelona’s debt is thus estimated at a net amount of €442m, while the gross figure could be in the €552m range.
In addition that the numbers presented by Barcelona’s last board of directors “do not reflect the club’s real image”, but also ruled out the possibility that the previous board had taken deliberate action to deceive in the presentation of their budgetary figures. It remains to be seen if and how Barcelona’s financial hurdles will impact the club’s transfer market aspirations, particularly with respect to the signing of Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas.
