Barcelona’s recovery in the space of two summers, at least financially, has been of Lazarus proportions. Last August they said goodbye to Lionel Messi due to their financial struggles, while this time round they lined up with Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde all newly-arrived.
However not without cost. Barcelona sold nearly half of various subsidiary businesses and some of their TV rights for the next 25 years in order to cover that cost.
Speaking to members in Mallorca ahead of Barcelona’s fixture with Real Mallorca on Saturday night, Laporta described the Sophie’s choice he believed he had. Sport carried his comments.
“Unfortunately, due to the situation that we came into, we only had two options: either sell levers or start asking people for money. At a point during the pandemic and economic difficulty, neither my colleagues on the board nor I wanted to do that, to ask for money. Selling assets had to be done to consolidate our recovery.”
It can be assumed that the people in this instance were the members. However he reassured those members that the business done was sound.
“You can be at ease because in a moment of the maximum difficulty we have sold at a very good price and without damaging excessively the accounts for the coming years. We went into the market and we have sold adequately.”
Many will point out that Barcelona could well have got through this summer without making so many signings and expensive ones at that. The rebuild seen as necessary by Laporta was ultimately the reason the club went to such lengths this summer.
