Barcelona have announced it made a loss of 97m euros (£88m) after-tax due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The club revealed the figures for the 2019-20 season, which showed that revenue fell by 135m euros (£122.5m) to 855m euros (£777m). This is well below the record-breaking forecast of one billion euros (£909m), which Barcelona claim would have seen them post a 2m euro (£1.8m) profit.
However, the Catalan club managed to save up to 74m euros (£67m) in salaries, thanks to a reduction agreement with players and coaching staff but are already predicting a 199m euro (£181m) drop in revenue for the 2020-21 season.
“The club suffered financially from the consequences of games being played behind closed doors, as well as the total cancellation of the basketball Euro League, and hence there was a considerable loss of income,” says the club’s financial report.
“The lack of tourists and visitors to the city of Barcelona due to the reductions and limitations applied to international tourism also meant far fewer visitors to Barca’s premises, meaning major losses in terms of such areas as visitors to the Camp Nou Experience and the sale of products in official stores.”
Net debt incurred by Barcelona as of 30 June was 488m euros (£443m), but the club’s adjusted debt is 379m euros (£344m) with investment in the Espai Barca project to redevelop the Nou Camp standing at 109m euros (£99m).
The report also revealed the club spent 1.68 billion euros (£1.5billion) on transfers over the last decade, recouping 944m euros (£858m) for a net spend on signings of 738m euros (£671m) over 10 years.
This is huge! Although I don’t understand a thing but that amount of money is freaking huge!
So why do clubs spend so much with so little return on investment? Makes no sense to me. I know some will say winning is everything. Still, I don’t get it.