Barcelona Finances 2023/24

Boys Keep Swinging

Barcelona’s 2023/24 accounts covered a season when they finished runners-up to their eternal rivals Real Madrid in La Liga, while they were eliminated in the quarter-finals in both the Copa del Rey and the Champions League.

President Joan Laporta said, “I fully understand the disappointment of the Barcelona fans with the first team’s results last season”, which ultimately resulted in the dismissal of head coach Xavi, replaced by former Bayern Munich manager Hansi Flick.

In contrast, Barcelona Femeni “continued to make history”, as they won their third Champions League title in Bilbao, their second in a row.

Laporta added, “Today we can assure people that the sporting, economic, social and institutional health of the club is good. We are cleaning up Barça’s finances in the shortest possible time without jeopardizing its model of associative ownership.”

The club said that it had managed “to stop the economic decline of recent years and achieved a positive ordinary profit of €12m”, but, as always with Barcelona, the devil is in the detail, so let’s take a deep dive into their finances to fully understand the club’s position.

Profit/(Loss) 2023/24

Barcelona actually reported a pre-tax loss of €129m, compared to the prior year’s huge €471m profit, which represented an adverse swing of €600m.

However, this is largely driven by the movement in economic levers, which delivered an €800m profit in 2022/23, but €141m of this gain was impaired last season. This alone led to a €941m deterioration in the bottom line.

As a reminder, Barcelona had pulled these famous levers (“palancas”) to raise funds, albeit at the expense of sacrificing income in the future.

Excluding the impact of the extraordinary booking, the club would have achieved the positive ordinary result of €12m quoted by the club, which was in line with budget.