The Newly elected president Joan Laporta has finally secured a bank guarantee worth €125 million and will officially take office on Wednesday. According to the club’s legislature any newly elected president and the elected board must make a depository payment of 15 per cent of the club’s budget – which currently stands at €125m – within ten days of their election.
Wednesday marked the deadline for depositing the amount. There were speculations surrounding Laporta and his team not being able to secure the amount after a collapse in an agreement with Audax Renovables , Catalan-based renewable energy company that was set to guarantee €70m of that payment.
Jaume Giró – a leading economic advisor who walked out of Laporta’s team in recent days suggested securing fundings from North America and labelled it as the reality. Laporta will now formally become the President this week.
Laporta still has to faces many challenges ahead as Barcelona president. He will have to bring some sort of financial stability at the club. Barcelona currently finds itself under enormous debt of 1.2 billion due to mismanagement of resources by the previous president and board members.
The future of Lionel Messi is still in doubt as his contract with the club expires in summer Laporta claims to have a good relationship with Messi. The Spaniard worked with Messi during his previous presidential stint at the club. He is confident about presenting a good sporting project that could convince Messi to extend his stay at the club.
The contract extension of young players is also a priority of the board with the contracts of Ousmane Dembele, Oscar Mingueza, Alex Collado set to expire in 2022. The future of first team manager Ronald Koeman also remains in the air after Barcelona was knocked out of the Champions League last week by Paris Saint-Germain.