Barcelona confirm huge losses
Barcelona lost more than €77m last season, the club's vice-president for economic affairs Javier Faus has revealed.
The previous board, led by former Barca president Joan Laporta, had announced the club was €11m in the black at the end of their mandate in late June, but a new audit carried out by Deloitte for Sandro Rosell's team has revealed a far less healthy scenario for the Catalan outfit.
The new audit shows that Barca had an income of €408.9m for the 2009/2010 season, but costs amounting to €477.9m.
The audit also puts the club's total net debt at €442m (€552m gross).
Further spending of around €8m means the overall deficit is calculated at €77.1m.
"The figures presented by the former board don't reflect the real image. They have cheated," Faus said.
"There is a structural problem. The sporting excellence in the last few years has not been reflected in economic excellence. The new board's goal is to bring economic excellence alongside sporting excellence."
Barca recently took out a loan of €155m after falling behind with the payment of player wages at the end of June.
Central defender Dymtro Chygrynskiy was also hastily sold to Shakhtar Donetsk to raise much-needed funds for the club.
Nevertheless, Barca have already signed striker David Villa this summer for €40m and
have had a €35m bid for Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas turned down earlier this summer. Progress on that deal has now stalled.
