LALIGA SANTANDER
Joan Laporta: “We have saved Barcelona from financial ruin”
Barcelona president Joan Laporta spoke on Thursday, covering a wide range of topics including the club’s finances, signings, Xavi and the European Super League.
Joan Laporta is happy with how things are going in his second spell as Barcelona president, which will soon have passed the two-year mark. “We are doing well and our main objective is LaLiga. We’re top of the table even though the team is in a transitional phase after so many signings. We’ve got good momentum. We are strong contenders to win the title, but we know that we are going to have to work hard to achieve it. Barça feels good about itself again and we’re starting to show the excellence that’s associated with us.”
The Barcelona president appeared in a press conference at the club’s Auditori 1899 and, in front of 90 members of the media, gave his view on the state of the club midway through the season and at the end of the January transfer window. The president answered questions along with Mateu Alemany, the club’s director of football, and the vice president for finance, Eduard Romeu. The press conference began with a minute’s silence in memory of Marcos Alonso Peña, a former Barcelona player and father of current Blaugrana defender, Marcos Alonso.
Xavi Hernández praise
Laporta was full of praise for Xavi, who he said “understands the club and is tremendously positive. He understands the club and, knowing our salary limitations, he has never asked us for more than we can offer. I can’t praise him and his staff highly enough”.
Barcelona finances and potential new signings
As far as the club’s finances go, Laporta stated that “we have saved Barça from financial ruin by making brave decisions. We’ve broken a club record for sponsorship deals and also for people coming along to our facilities”.
With that in mind, Laporta reflected on the difficulty of signing players: “It is due to the salary cap imposed by LaLiga. We were well above the limit when he came in, by 300-350 million. Now we have reduced it by 100 million and we hope to reach 175 million in the summer. In the meantime, we have built a very competitive team for 74 million, when you take signings and sales into account. Every time we overcome an obstacle, LaLiga changes the rule for us. It happened with the financial levers and they put a limit on us after making them. I don’t want to cause controversy, but I could write a monograph about it. It also happened with the buyback options and other things too, like how to calculate revenue and the identity of the auditors who validate certain operations, which can only be certain people. Let me be clear clear; LaLiga are allowed to do that. But it makes life incredibly difficult; let’s see if they start to make it a little easier for us. We will continue working to register players, we’re following the treasury plan and we want to improve our relationship with LaLiga.”
Do Barcelona need to sell to sign?
When asked if the reduction of the salary cap would lead to the possible sale of players like Ansu Fati, Laporta was clear: “That’s not an option for us, we have high hopes for him. We are not thinking about selling him. I cannot predict the future, but it depends on the coach playing him and feeling that he is a useful member of the roster. He has the ability to live up to the expectations we have of him. I cannot hazard a guess about the future of any player, but it is not necessary for us to sell players to be able to sign others. We are not obliged to do so because we believe there are other solutions.”
At that point, Alemany intervened to say that “the wage bill was unsustainable regardless of Financial Fair Play. We have to lower it to 400-450 million, that would be logical. We’re not going to get rid of key players. The departures of Pique and Griezmann, whose contracts would’ve continued into next season, will save us 90 million.”
Mathias Messi’s comments on Barcelona
Laporta was asked about the comments of Mathias Messi, Lionel’s brother, in the second round of questions: “It’s obvious that Messi is a Barça legend, but don’t make me talk about Messi, who’s a PSG player. I respect the player and the club. As for his brother, he has already apologized and I would leave it at that, it’s understandable.”
Laporta re-affirmed his stance against racism. “Barça will always be fighting against such acts and we are where we have always been.”
New player contracts, including Sergio Busquets
On Sergio Busquets, he said that “he’s doing brilliantly. Without him, the young players wouldn’t shine as much. I’ve always told him that when he’s made his decision, to call us and tell us what he wants to do. We haven’t sat down to talk yet, we sat down before Christmas when proposals from MLS came in and he could have taken advantage of the January window, but he didn’t and wanted to finish with us. We’re working on him, as well as Balde, Sergi Roberto, Peña and Araújo. The sports committee is working on it, but we can’t say that deals have been done. They are being worked on and have almost been agreed.”
The European Super League
Laporta also talked about the new proposals for the European Super League: “it’s moving forward, the club is in full agreement with that the information in the A22 document. The competition must be attractive, sustainable and respect the players. We promote open competition, but without damaging our relationship with UEFA and co-existing with national competitions, in the same way as the Champions League does. We will know more about it in April.”
Espai Barça: the renovation of Barcelona’s facilities, including Camp Nou
With regard to Espai Barça, the Barcelona president lamented that “we didn’t take advantage of the (covid-19) lockdown in the same was as our rivals did. We should have done the work 10 years earlier but we will have one of the best stadiums in the world, which will help us to increase revenue.”
On the move to Montjuïc next season, Laporta announced that “we will hold another press conference specifically to talk about that,” but insisted that the decision to contract Turkish company Limak for the project was completely legal. Laporta regretted that “in recent weeks, things that are simply not true have been published and we have denied them three times. Regarding information about deaths during the construction of Istanbul Airport, we know nothing about that. It is a company with great values, which they are now demonstrating after the earthquake in Turkey.”
The president reiterated that “the financing of Espai Barça will be ready soon, according to what JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs have told us. I am very relaxed about that.”
Gerard Piqué's Kings League
Finally, Laporta was asked about the relationship between the club and the King’s League, promoted by former Barcça defender Gerard Piqué. For Laporta, “there is no link between Piqué's departure and the King’s League. They have already sold 45,000 tickets. Piqué is an important part of our history and we are very happy that he is doing well. There is no conflict with our sponsors.”