BARCELONA, 18 (EUROPA PRESS)
FC Barcelona's director of professional sports, Xavier O'Callaghan, explained this Monday that his goal is for the club to continue "being a benchmark" in all the sports in which it operates, while maintaining its "philosophy" and thus being able to compete against clubs that can invest more than the Blaugrana entity.
"Our goal is for Barça to remain a benchmark in all sports, alongside the biggest spending clubs, while maintaining our philosophy and our way of doing things," the executive explained this Monday at a press conference to explain the current situation regarding financial fair play and its impact on the management of the Blaugrana club's divisions.
The director of professional sports for the Catalan club explained that the regulations imposed by LaLiga regarding budget and finance control "affect not only the first team, but also all of the club's sports departments and structures."
"In the case of Barça, it's a multi-sport club, but the impact of fair play encompasses the entire club, and that's also part of the divisions. Fair play basically attempts to calculate the sports salary available to each club," explained the former handball player for the Blaugrana.
O'Callaghan revealed that LaLiga informed them last season that they exceeded the permitted spending by seven million, so they demanded a guarantor. "Last season, they spent seven million on everything that's not eligible for registration. LaLiga tells you that the only way I can control that is to ask you for a guarantor to guarantee that you'll comply next season. And that's what happened," he stated.
"And that's what happened. That happened two years ago, and it happened again this time. The board of directors issued a guarantee in order to comply with the regulations required by the Professional Football League, which is, 'If you don't guarantee that money, we will remove you from the register.' And since the club wants to maintain the total salary bill for its sections and football, it has had to make this effort to try to protect the total salary bill for the first football team and the club," he explained.
The executive revealed that this season's non-registrable salary bill will be €95 million , of which €56 million will be allocated to the professional sections, amateur sports, youth football, and the Barça Academy. "Our responsibility is to find a balance: to invest to maintain the competitiveness of all sections, within the rules of the game set by LaLiga, and without losing the club's identity," he declared.
"You don't have to be the biggest spender to win. The important thing is to have a good sports structure, invest in homegrown talent, and strengthen ourselves with good judgment and experience. This way, we can compete against teams with bigger budgets," said the Blaugrana's director of professional sports regarding the strategy the club will pursue over the coming years to remain a "benchmark" in all sports.
