Barcelona's economic vice-president Javier Faus maintained the club must take a prudent approach in the face of Spain's economic crisis, despite signing off on record profits of Eur48.8 million for the 2011-12 season, reports SportBusiness. Barca had targeted a return to profit following losses of Eur9.3 million and Eur83 million in the previous two seasons.
Speaking during his end-of-year financial report, Faus revealed Barcelona increased its revenues by Eur21.5 million to Eur494.9 million and cut its expenditure by Eur31.5 million to Eur441.1 million. In terms of costs, the club reduced its spending by 6.6% from the previous year.
Faus stated that this change is mainly due to Barcelona failing to win the league title and therefore avoiding having to pay Eur12 million in bonuses to its players.
However, he noted: "If we had won the Liga the overall surplus would have been Eur36 million and it still would have been the best end-of-year figure in the history of the club. It's not true that Barca saved itself Eur50 million for not winning the Liga."
Faus said that revenues increased by 11%, noting in particular "spectacular" ticket sales that allowed the club to post record ticketing income of Eur50 million. However, the vice-president admitted that media revenue, specifically television rights, "has topped out and we don't expect an increase in the next five years."
Barcelona's total debt, which once stood at Eur420 million two years ago, has been reduced to Eur335 million with Faus stating that the club "needs to be cautious" if it wants to take on "ambitious future projects".
