Barcelona make losses of over €700m in two years
Karan Tejwani
- 2 May 2022 14:45 BST
- 3 min read
Barcelona have had serious financial issues for the last few years and the depth of it has been shown in the figures comparing it to other top European clubs.
In a thread released by Swiss Ramble on Twitter about the 12 European Super League-founding clubs’ financial situation over the last two years, Barcelona’s problems were highlighted.
It showed that pre-tax losses for some of Europe’s top clubs increased over the last two years, but the Blaugrana were most affected – rising up to £604 million, or €721 million.
Related articles
The figure is almost double of the next of the 12 clubs on the list, Inter, who €354m loss over the same accounting period.
How much have Barcelona been affected?
Compared to the other two Spanish clubs part of the Super League, it is also made clear that Barcelona are far away from their two counterparts, especially Real Madrid.
Los Blancos made a profit – albeit a relatively small one – of €3.5m over the last two years, being the only club of the 12 to make a profit, while Atletico Madrid made a loss of €128 million, once again a relatively smaller loss compared to other European clubs who were part of the Super League plan.
A majority of Barcelona’s losses came in 2021 – €587m – and they were majorly impacted by Covid, just like most other clubs across Europe.
The last time they made a profit was in 2019, the year before Covid affected clubs through matches being played behind closed doors and the transfer market was hit badly across European football.
Pre-tax losses for the 12 ESL clubs shot up in the last 2 years, adding up a to a horrific £2.2 bln. In this period, four clubs lost more than a quarter of a billion pounds (#FCBarcelona £604m, #Inter £297m, #Juventus £256m and #Milan £250m) and only one made a (tiny) profit. pic.twitter.com/HWFaP1wNWE
— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) May 2, 2022
Barcelona have had to make serious amendments over the years to accommodate the impact of the pandemic, and the unfortunate timing of it, combined with their poor financial decisions before it led to a depleted squad this season, which didn’t feature Lionel Messi, who was almost forced to leave last summer to Paris Saint-Germain.
President Joan Laporta has been aiming for more financial stability since returning in March 2021, and he has a huge task on his hands in the coming years.
