Ferran Olivé: "If we had wanted to resolve the debt, we would have accepted PSG's offer for Lamine."

BarcelonaFerran Olivé has gradually gained prominence at Barça during Joan Laporta's second term. A psychiatrist by profession, Olivé has been one of the key figures on the board, where he has served as treasurer.

How does a specialist in psychiatry end up as treasurer of a club like Barça?

— First of all, because I'm a math geek. I've always loved numbers: when I have some free time, I spend it solving biquadratic or exponential equations. And then, besides being a psychiatrist, I've run a company with over 2,000 employees. So, I'm pretty up-to-date on the economic and business side of things.

One of the themes of this campaign is "we have saved Barça." Is that really the case?

— When we arrived in 2021, we couldn't pay salaries. It was a ship taking on water from all sides. That year, we ended up losing 500 million. The football squad accounted for 98% of our revenue, and the highest-paid players were on the bench. We had to restructure the football squad and the other sections. And we turned things around without touching the members' pockets and without selling the first-team stars. The easy thing would have been to accept PSG's offer for Lamine Yamal. The problem is that you have to do this little by little, maintaining a competitive team. And in the meantime, you have to make a very difficult decision: building the stadium.

However, a percentage of the television rights and various club assets have been sold. This jeopardizes future interests.

— Ultimately, this represents 4% of the club's revenue.

When will the 1:1 rule be implemented?

— I think this summer. It would have been possible to reach the final market by selling PSL (seats). VIPBut it was detrimental to us because there are two here. fair playsThe league's and UEFA's regulations. UEFA takes into account net worth, which in our case is negative. If we improved it all at once now, they would force us to keep doing it later. Flick and Deco told us they had everything covered, so it wasn't a necessity. All we did was take advantage of Christensen's departure to sign Cancelo.

It is always promised that the 1:1 standard will be reached, but it is never achieved.

— The relationship with the League wasn't easy because we said no to the agreement with CVC, which was designed for public limited sports companies, but which was detrimental to us. It was also more expensive for us. fair play It's not easy to understand. And besides that, the League modifies it every year. Today we couldn't even activate a lever to generate fair playThey've already cut that. Now it can only be with the club's regular result.

When 2021 arrives, they hire a CEO, Ferran Reverter. But he leaves a year later, and it takes them almost four years to replace him. Why?

— That's not exactly right. For starters, Barça, not just under that board, but before, has a powerful team of executives. It's not poorly managed. When Reverter left, we didn't consider making a change because Maribel Meléndez, who was the corporate director, took over as general manager. We also had a finance director, and all the structures were functioning perfectly. I've been involved in many negotiations, and I can say that our executives are far superior to those of other companies. It infuriates me when people say we run Barça that way...

She talks about Maribel, but she also...

— He left because he had an offer, not because of a bad relationship. And I'll make a confession: he's joined my company. What's happening at Barça? It's exhausting. For the directors, for me, for everyone.

Eduard Romeu also left, and the economic vice-presidency was not filled.

— Because we were halfway through the term and I don't know if it made sense. There are positions that are taken for granted, but they don't necessarily have to be there. The bylaws don't stipulate that there has to be a vice president for finance, one for marketing, one for social activities... Their work was transferred to the treasurer, and I've simply been more involved with the club than at the beginning.

We're talking about Espai Barça. Do you still maintain that 1.5 billion will be enough for Camp Nou and the Palau?

— We're doing well at the moment. The thing is, we'll have to sit down with Limak at the end of the project and negotiate. Our current thinking is that we have the money to build the stadium and the Palau.

But the club has already exceeded the €1 billion loan limit. If we add the €180 million in financial expenses, that leaves around €260 million to finish the stadium and build the Palau. Is this realistic?

— Because a lot has happened, and to keep construction going, we've been incurring expenses. There will most likely be money that Limak will have to reimburse us, which for now has been covered by the club's regular budget. We'll only know the total at the end of the year.

And if in the end there isn't enough money left over, what will happen to the Palau?

— We'll consider it. One option is for someone to put up the money in exchange for a certain operating license. But we're not considering that right now. We've had offers like the ones Font's candidacy is proposing—that someone else build the Palau for you, but you can only play twenty games there. But we've ruled that out because then the arena wouldn't really be yours.

Will only twenty matches be allowed at the Palau de Font?

— An American group presented us with the same proposal he's announced. We rejected it. Why is it necessary to have a new Palau if we can't enjoy it?

Let's go to Barça Vision. What happened?

— The world of token And the metaverse was experiencing tremendous growth. We created this business to avoid selling BLM and put 49% of the company up for sale for €200 million. The buyers were Jaume Roures—with Orpheus—and Socios.com, two technology partners. But this whole thing fell apart. For that reason, both asked us to let them share their stakes with other investors. At that point, Libero, a German investment fund with credible people behind it, came on board. And we also got another German company based in Cyprus, Vestigia, which put €20 million on the table. Once they joined the board of directors, they told us they wanted to take the company public. We refused, and they blocked the company. Now, an agreement has been reached with them so they can exit if someone buys their stake.

Are Hellgas and Vestigia the same investors?

— Yeah.

It was reported that the Cypriot Andreas Aristeidou was behind the two companies.

— I've never met him. I have no idea who that man is. We fight with others.

What are their names?

— I don't remember their names. They were the lawyer and the company's CEO.

And Aramark, a catering company, how did it involve a business of blockchain and tokens?

— Every time we found technology investors, Vestigia blocked the deal. The people at Aramark, closely linked to Formula 1, were interested in the project and wanted to invest in it.

How did the negotiation with Nike go?

— The contract seemed good in 2015-16, but there were some loose ends. Aside from multiple lawsuits, we saw that the contract was below market value for the European market. There were many things that were detrimental to us, and we couldn't take advantage of e-commerce, for example. We started talking, but they told us there was nothing to negotiate and that we had a contract until 2028. This further strained things, and we decided to terminate the contract and manufacture our own clothing to show they were serious. Nike didn't believe us and told us that if we brought a binding offer, they would match it. Puma made us an offer, and within a week, Nike matched it.

What role did Darren Dein play?

— He helped us because he has a very special relationship with the president of Spotify. And since the president of Nike was on Spotify's board of directors, he facilitated that connection so that Nike would accept Puma's binding offer. Otherwise, we wouldn't have gone from 70 million in '24 to 200 million. This whole process took two years. Darren Dein's intermediation was undoubtedly necessary, which is why the commission is split between Nike and us.

And if Nike hadn't accepted and the deal had been signed with Puma, wouldn't Darren Dein have been paid?

— Puma also brought Darren Dein in, but in this case we didn't get around to discussing his commission.

If the relationship with Nike had been bad, wasn't it better to switch to Puma?

— Puma even told us they'd improve their offer. But we said no. Basically, because the contract wouldn't have run until 2028 and the financial difference wasn't worth it for us.

It has been said that Darren Dein also received a commission from the Spotify sponsorship.

— The deal could not be closed without him.

Let's change the subject. How did New Era come about?

— Orange is the one who brought New Era Visionary Group to Barça through the club's telecommunications contract. There, the company's founder, Ruslan Birladeanu, also introduced us to the project. the idea of ​​creating an e-sims application for travelThen we also reached an agreement with them for the stadium antennas.

He says that New Era arrived thanks to Orange, but a year before all this, Barça was already working with Birladeanu's son selling watches with the Barça brand.

— I don't know him. Does his son sell watches?

Since they were awarded the antenna contract within a month, it was announced that they would create Barça Mobile and, in return, They go buy 70 million seats at Barça VIP?

— It wasn't exactly a month later. November was the final award, but they had been working on it for some time. He put up 28 million and they kept it, and of the 70 million he had committed to, he resold another 14 million.

Who bought them?

— I don't know. He sold them himself; Barça isn't involved.

And Barça has no control over who exploits a significant portion of its seats VIP?

— That's their issue, we're not involved. Well, there are some resale clauses; they couldn't sell them to Real Madrid, for example.

We're talking about Messi. Was his return really possible?

— I'd rather not add fuel to the fire here. But what Xavi said isn't true. And I'm very sorry, because it's not fair.

But what Laporta said in 2023, that they had an agreement with...

— We were discussing it. Of course, the league was interested in my return for branding reasons, but they made it clear that we'd have to see if it would be a good fit. In the end, no formal offer was made.

He also talks about Alejandro Echevarría, whom he says has more power than the president.

— This is completely false.

Do you feel comfortable working with someone like Alejandro Echevarría, and do you think he fits in with the club's founding values?

— I'll answer you as a psychiatrist. I interact with everyone. That said, what Alejandro Echevarría brings to the first team is extremely important. He's someone who protects the first team and allows them to work very well. He does essential work. But I'm not the only one saying this. Deco says it, Flick says it, and the players, who are the main protagonists, say it.