Football News : Barca CEO paints grim picture of clubs financial situation

Barcelona CEO Ferran Reverter presented a grim picture of the club's financial situation as he spoke at press conference in Barcelona, Spain, on Wednesday. "We went from 159 million euros (183 million USD) to 673 million euros (777 million USD). We added 514 million euros. This has its origins in the buying and selling of players - approx 300 million euros -, the 'Espai Barca' building project, and a 45 million euros (52 million USD) investment mostly in software," said Reverter. "Because they didn't make any planning in their finances we have to face very high financial costs of about 71 million euros. But the most important aspect here is that during two and a half years Barcelona didn't generate profits, not even a million euro, to pay for all these investments," he added. According to these figures, Barcelona was technically bankrupt when president Joan Laporta took over earlier this year, following the resignation of former president Josep Bartomeu and his board of directors last year. Reverter and the new administration had to fully restructure the club's debts and drastically reduce its payroll to start getting back in shape, which was one of the reasons the club couldn't give Lionel Messi a new contract. Messi eventually signed for Paris Saint-Germain. "Barca hasn't finished (balancing the finances in order to acquire new players). We still must make a series of decisions towards decreasing the salary mass," insisted Reverter.