Barça fishes a new financial director from Banc Sabadell

BarcelonaImportant movements in the Barça offices. Joan Laporta will begin his term with a new financial director. According to El Confidencial and confirmed by ARA, Sergio Serrano will fulfill these functions. Trained in management and finance at Esade, he has accumulated more than 25 years of experience in the capital markets sector. He comes from Banco 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 during the most critical years of the financial crisis. In this context, he played a crucial 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 from September 30th, the date he will leave Barça, as ARA has been able to confirm from various sources. Ramírez is one of the few key figures who have remained at the club since the era of Josep Maria Bartomeu. Key in economic exposures and in knowledge of financial fair play regulations, he plans to leave Camp Nou after a decade in which he has climbed positions in budget 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 today 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 Barça management occur in a very sensitive context, as the club finds itself needing to request more financing from Goldman Sachs to continue with the renovation works of the Camp Nou. As exclusively reported by ARA a week ago, the credit operation worth 1.450 million euros has been exhausted due to deviations in the stadium caused by construction delays, material cost increases, and other unforeseen circumstances. It is estimated that the cost overruns are around 400 million euros and that Barça will have to ask for at least 500 million more to continue with the work, which is currently at the stage of the third tier being 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 set to become the new Barça treasurer in this process of change.