Newspaper Article

It doesn't add up to claim that Barcelona are skint

Walker, Michael

2010

Overview

What we hear is the new Barca president, Sandro rosell, say: 'We found a club in debt, with liquidity problems.' As reassurance, rosell adds: 'The club is not bankrupt, because it generates income.' This makes us wonder. What we have difficulty with is not just Barcelona and the word 'bankrupt' appearing in the same sentence, but the fact that, 49 days ago, on the Nou Camp pitch, David Villa posed in his new Barca kit, a Pounds 32m signing from Valencia. That is more than Manchester United have spent on a single player. On FIFA team sheets, Villa is still listed as belonging to Valencia, but he is a Barca player now and squaring his and six others' participation in South Africa with the club's implied crisis is part of a greater confusion. even this week, as rosell announced the loan negotiations, he said he planned to fly to South Africa, where he would 'try to see Arsene Wenger'. The only topic of that proposed conversation would be Cesc Fabregas. Because the club with the Pounds 125m bank loan to cover wages also has up to Pounds 42m to try to lure Fabregas away from Arsenal and back to Catalonia. Rosell is not deterred by the apparent bad financial news. Of the Fabregas transfer, he told a Barcelona-based newspaper: 'It's now or never. We'll do it fast. It won't be protracted. I'll try to see Wenger, then we'll tell you what happens.' 'Take it or leave it,' is the message to Arsenal, who already know the effect upon their captain Fabregas of Barca's interest.

• Publisher: Solo Syndication, a division of Associated Newspapers Ltd
• Subject: Laporta, Joan