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FC Barcelona's finances are doing great. Last season, they were as great as ever.
Barça's economic vice-president, Javier Faus, gave a press conference on Tuesday to announce the club's annual financial review. The 2013-14 season saw an income never seen, beating by a lot the never-before reached €500 million mark. Barça's total profit mark was also the second-highest ever.
"The net profits this year amounted to 41 million euros, a figure previously only topped by the 49 million euros in the 2011/12 season, and that in the four seasons since 2010/11, when the new Board came into power, the club has an accumulated profit of 113 million euros. Never before has the club generated such a profit over four consecutive years, which averages out at 35 million euros a year.
The 2013/14 season also witnessed a reduction in the net debt by 44 million euros, meaning that since the new Board took over, this figure has decreased by 143 million, and as of June 30 of this year now stands at 287 million euros, while four years ago it was 431 million."Source: FCBarcelona.com
The transfers of Cesc Fábregas, Thiago Alcântara and Tonny Sanabria were also added to the figures. Alexis Sánchez sale to Arsenal will be included in next year's balance. The biggest contributor to Barça's income came from the Marketing department -- €169 million.
According to Faus, Barcelona's potential is still untapped:
"Javier Faus stressed that the unprecedented commercial and sponsorship deals involving FC Barcelona have been the driving force behind such positive changes. "We are much stronger and we feel we have a greater presence around the world than we did four years ago", he said, going on to explain that the club is particularly interested in Brazil and Russia as potential strategic targets, being two major countries where it has no partner. Faus added that Leo Messi could be used to approach the Russian market, while Neymar Jr will be a useful vehicle for getting into Brazil."
Source: FCBarcelona.com
Perhaps the most astonishing number of them all is Top-10 list Barça's rise from 24th to second in the Forbes list of the most valuable teams in the world, all of it in only four years. This is the highest growth of any club in the world -- of any sport -- during that span. Faus believes that Barcelona could beat Real Madrid and become the most valuable club on this planet once the team renews the partnership contracts -- Nike, Qatar Airways, etc.
Last year, the championships didn't come. The money did. A lot of it. Barça is richer than ever. Will that lead to titles?
