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The Vice President of "Barcelona" Javier Faus, who oversees the economic area, presented the financial indicators of the club's activities from the last season.
According to him, the most significant achievement is that the team finally did not experience financial losses and made a profit. In the 2011-2012 season, the team's budget increased by 48.8 million euros. The debt, which previously amounted to 420 million euros, decreased to 335 million euros.
During the past financial year, "Barcelona" had revenues of 494.9 million euros, and expenses of 441.4 million euros. This means that the Catalan club spent 31.5 million euros (6.6 percent) less than two years ago.
According to J. Faus, successful operations were guaranteed by tightened financial control, cost-saving policies in some areas, successful ticket sales, agreements with "Qatar Foundation" and the sports goods industry giant "Nike", and, of course, additional income from broadcasting rights sales.
Now, according to one of the leaders of "Barcelona," the club will continue to focus on reducing its financial debt, but J. Faus also warned that one should not expect the team's debt to decrease quickly, for example, to 200 million euros.
The profit of 48.8 million euros gained is the largest in the entire history of the Catalan team.
However, "Barcelona" did not win the Spanish championship or the UEFA Champions League. J. Faus also acknowledged that if the team had won the national championship, it would have had to pay out an additional 12 million euros in various bonuses.
"Even if we had won the Primera, 'Barca' would have earned 36 million euros, which would still have been the best indicator in the team's entire history," emphasized the vice president.
It is said that the largest part of the earned profit will continue to be allocated towards reducing debts.
J. Faus also informed about the team's losses. The termination of contracts with Keirrison, Henrique, and Alexander Hleb cost "Barcelona" 20 million euros.
Additionally, the Catalan team lost 250 thousand euros due to various violations of competition regulations and disciplinary actions.
In the last year's Champions League final against "Manchester United," "Barcelona" players were late to take the field. The same happened in the UEFA Super Cup match against "Porto." It is reported that such violations occurred due to prolonged discussions by Josep Guardiola with the players before the matches. "Barca" also had to pay for the behavior of its fans during matches when various pyrotechnic devices were used in the stands.
President Sandro Rosell of the Catalan club, who also participated in the press conference, added that in the upcoming season "Barcelona" will no longer pay 1.8 million euros to the "Deportivo" team from La Coruna.
Some Spanish first division clubs provide such financial injections to teams that have dropped to a lower league. This agreement was signed two years ago.
