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Big challenges for Barca retread supremo

Barcelona had been admired across global football as a club that combines success on the pitch with fan involvement.   It is a key part of the resurgence of Catalonia. In the 2018/19 season, it became the world’s highest revenue-generating club with €840.8m — an increase of nearly €500m from a decade earlier.  Barcelona’s stated ambition was to be the first football club to reach annual revenues of more than €1bn. The pandemic has punctured that notion. 

Years of financial mismanagement have seen the club accumulate debts of a barely believable €1.17 billion — which, for any normal business, would mean bankruptcy and liquidation. The arrests last week of Bartomeu and three other past or present Barca executives in a judicial investigation into potential financial crimes at the Nou Camp was yet another reminder of just what a mess the club is in.   (Bartomeu emphatically denies any wrongdoing).

The hope of a recovery from these challenges was what prompted a record turnout of “socios” (fan members) in last Sunday’s election. More than 20,000 socios located within Catalonia had earlier voted by post, then almost 35,000 more turned up at the Nou Camp and five other polling stations for a total electorate of 55,611.

Just over 30,000 of these voted for Laporta, giving him 54 per cent of the votes, ahead of Victor Font’s 30 per cent and Toni Freixa’s nine per cent. This commanding victory made Laporta the first former Barcelona president to return to the post in more than 70 years.

Laporta did talk during his campaign about tapping bond markets for extra cash. The club’s new economic vice-president Jaume Giro has mentioned two different debt issues — one aimed at fans and another at investors.   He faces a tough task on and off the pitch and tensions within the club between the traditional 'establishment' and insurgent forces are still there.

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