Barça fishes a new financial director at Banc Sabadell

BarcelonaImportant movements in the Barça offices. Joan Laporta will begin his term with a new financial director. As reported by El Confidencial and confirmed by ARA, Sergio Serrano will fulfill these functions. Trained in management and finance at Esade, he has accumulated over 25 years of experience in the capital markets sector. He comes from Banc Sabadell, where he has held various positions since joining in 2002. He started with portfolio management and shortly after moved to more strategic areas, such as the management of corporate operations and internal reorganization processes, and in the most critical years of the financial crisis. In this context, he played a key role in the restructuring of Banco CAM, which in 2011 passed to Sabadell's ownership after an adjudication process.

Serrano's arrival, suggested and worked on by Alejandro Echevarría, will fill the void left by Marcel Ramírez once the transfer market ends in September, the date on which he will leave Barça, as ARA has been able to confirm from various sources. He has been dismissed. Ramírez has been an employee of the entity since the era of Josep Maria Bartomeu and has moved up through the ranks. Key in economic disclosures and in understanding the financial fair play rule, he will leave after a decade at Camp Nou, where he has climbed positions in budgetary management. Since 2024, after the dismissal of Maribel Meléndez, he was promoted to financial director, a vacancy left by Manel del Río, who was promoted to Meléndez's position. Del Río, brought in by Laporta, is currently the general director of Barça. Serrano, the new financial director, will report to him.

Key months for the future of Barça

These changes in the Blaugrana management occur in a very sensitive context, as the club finds itself in need of requesting more financing from Goldman Sachs to continue with the renovation works of the Camp Nou. As ARA exclusively reported a week ago, the credit operation worth 1,450 million euros has been exhausted due to stadium deviations caused by work delays, rising material costs, and other unforeseen circumstances. It is estimated that the cost overruns are around 400 million euros and that Barça will have to request at least 500 million more to continue with the work, which currently has the third tier half-finished and the roof in the initial section of the facility.

There is no news about the new Palau Blaugrana. In any case, at the next assembly, Laporta's new board will offer the appropriate explanations to get the green light from the delegate members to request more financing for Espai Barça. In this extraordinary session, the ratification of Ferran Olivé as economic vice-president will be sought. Carme Hortalà, the other financial profile from the Defensem el Barça candidacy, is poised to become the new Blaugrana treasurer in this process of change.