The recently elected president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta has to bring some financial stability to the club in the summer. In order to achieve this stability, he and his board members have decided to approach Goldman Sachs. The American investment bank has decided to approve Barcelona’s request and sanction €500 million loan as per Spanish media outlets.
Barcelona is under tremendous debt due to the mismanagement of former president Josep Maria Bartomeu. The Spaniard had to eventually resign at the start of the season after creating financial distress at the club. There have been serious doubts regarding the future of key players including star man Lionel Messi.
They are facing a huge number of problems right now but the main concern for the Catalan club is to repay the enormous €1.173 billion debt. A sum of €750 million has to be settled in short term. Breaking down those massive figures further, €263 million are the financial debts, €160 million in debt to the staff as they cut short their wages, and €200 million to cover bond financing.
Barcelona sources have explained to the newspaper L’Esportiu: “This credit will give air and stability to the club, we can be calm this season and next season. We have looked at what could be the worst-case scenario, that fans don’t enter the stadium throughout next season. Even so, we can be calm after this operation.”
It was also revealed that the American firm have been more flexible than other banks as they had offered favourable conditions with regards to the repayment. The fiscal operation would be totally different from the Espai Baraa project to renovate the Camp Nou and its surroundings.
During the early audit at the start of 2021, it was reportedly revealed that Barcelona had done unethical payments and many transfer fee payments of previous transfers are pending. This agreement would help the club to navigate through the financial distress for the time being, but a long-term plan will be needed to get the club growing on and off the pitch.