© AP
"The Barcelona club has recently been facing serious financial problems, which led the team's brightest star Lionel Messi to leave this summer. The situation at the club was discussed by Barcelona president Joan Laporta at a press conference on Monday, where he revealed that the Spanish giant is currently burdened with a debt of over 1 billion euros, and also did not hesitate to criticize former president Josep Bartomeu. "When I took over the club, I immediately had to take out an 80 million euro loan, because otherwise we would not have been able to pay salaries to either players or staff. The previous administration fictitiously reduced players' salaries. We noticed that all that money returned to the players in the form of bonuses or was used for new contracts. Bartomeu's letter was full of lies. He tried to justify a management that is simply impossible to justify or understand. Currently, our payroll accounts for 103 percent of our revenues. This is significantly higher compared to all our rivals. No one will escape responsibility. Our financial situation is simply dramatic. The debt of Barcelona club reaches up to 1.35 billion euros," J. Laporta said.
