The sum that worries Laporta
In the spring of 2026 there will be elections at Barça and right now the Barça president has accumulated losses during his term.


BarcelonaDemocracy is beginning to stir the leaves of the trees around Barça's offices in Aristides Maillol. For now, the whisper of the wind is gentle, but it promises to increase in volume as the months go by. Although no one has yet publicly mentioned the word taboo, elections, both Joan Laporta's board of directors and those around him are increasingly considering their steps. The way the club is governed is already imbued with an imminent horizon: the elections that must be held next spring.
Thus, the decisions that Laporta is making and will make until then should not only be analyzed from a club perspective. They are also strongly influenced by his desire to be re-elected for another five years as Barça president. This factor carries a lot of weight in matters such as the rush to return to Camp Nou as soon as possible, which clashes with the attitude of a Barcelona City Council that has no problem in expressing that the return could still be a matter of months, as Albert Batlle, the deputy mayor for security in Barcelona, said on RAC1 last week.
But only Barça winning a sixth Champions League title would embellish Laporta's election campaign and offer the members a return to the remodeled Camp Nou where spectators can access without restrictions. to the entire first two tiersThe goal would arrive, at the very least, a year late—the initial promise was for November 2024—and after an advertising campaign for the Joan Gamper Trophy featuring a Laporta who would one day be happy to argue his purpose for doing so, without being certain of anything. But seeing Lamine Yamal play for the first time at the Camp Nou would give more than a few people amnesia.
123 million in accumulated losses
In any case, in electoral terms, the return to Camp Nou is by no means just an emotional issue. It's also an economic one. And now we're not referring to the additional income that this return home will bring, nor to the sporting need to finally achieve the 1:1 rule. fair play financial (you can spend every euro you earn on signings and renewals) that Laporta has failed to achieve since arriving in 2021. We're referring to Laporta's desire to close out his term without losses. For two reasons: first, because doing so with losses would give fodder to his electoral rivals during the campaign, and second, because a hypothetical defeat in the elections would leave it up to someone else to hold him accountable for it.
Right now, while waiting for the figures for the 2024-2025 financial year to be presented, Laporta's board has a negative balance sheet. The accumulated losses so far since the first financial year they closed, 2020-2021, amount to 123 million euros. Specifically, the first financial year, affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the catastrophic legacy of Josep Maria Bartomeu's tenure (Laporta took over the club four months before the end of the year), and the depreciation in the value of several players decided by Laporta, resulted in losses of €481 million. This burden began to be reversed the following year, which ended with €98 million in profits, boosted by the sale to Sixth Street of 10% of La Liga's television rights for the next 25 years.
The 2022-2023 financial year was also a lever of leverage. Barça recorded €351 million in profits in a year in which it improved its commercial income, sold an additional 15% of the television rights, and 49% of Barça Studios, a thorn in the side that the club has been dragging due to the various defaults by investors. the inability to provide value to the project and the depreciation requested (without the club's approval) by Barça's former auditor, Grant Thornton. In fact, the 2023-2024 financial year ended with losses of 91 million euros due to the aforementioned non-payments. All these figures have also been influenced by the exile in Montjuïc over the last two seasons, which has reduced matchday revenue.
How can these losses be eliminated?
Be that as it may, the figure of 123 million accumulated losses since 2021 is a reality that Laporta has set out to neutralize. The added difficulty is that he must do so in the same closing statement he will present to the October shareholders' meeting because the next one will be after the elections. Therefore, he has no choice but to present a profit of at least 123 million. Is it viable? One of the things Laporta is good at is accounting engineering. The essential thing will be that the figures for the 2024-2025 financial year include the 100 million income from the seat lever. VIP of the new Camp Nou even though La Liga may not accept them for the fair play financial, and that the club's current auditor, Crowe, doesn't see it clearly because the stadium hasn't yet reopened. The matter could be resolved with a new warning from the auditor, which would worry Laporta much less than closing his term with accumulated losses.