Barcawinner said:
How is the economic situation now? Has anyone got information? Laporta started with a deficit of 150 million euro's. How much is it now?
Yeah we started last year with a debt of 150 million. The goal for that year was zero deficit, and we surpassed it. As mentioned in other places we managed to create a surplus of 6.7 euros.
The club could have done a variety of things with this surplus, but the most likely is to pay down the debt. Additionally some of the debt service would be included in the budget for 2004/04. I have no idea how much because I do not know how the debt is structured (anyone know anything about that).
So my best guess is that we have a debt of somewhere just north of 140 million.
If anyone was wondering the surplus was created by a 37% increase in revenue (mostly from TV contracts), and a 17% reduction in expenses (mostly from wage reductions).
This year's budget was set at around 200 million euros.
In comparison Real Madrid's budget is somewhere near 230 million euros.
All of this is more or less from memory so some of the figures may be wrong, but I think that is the general idea. I remember reading an article that had most of this information in it. I'll dig around for it.
Also if anyone is interested the Deloitte Football Money League report has a lot of good info about football finances in it.