La Liga Takes Barça to Court Over Alleged Financial Misconduct

La Liga suspects that FC Barcelona misrepresented figures earned from its sale of  VIP seats to partners New Era Visionary Group, which went a long way in putting Barça back within the 1:1 rule. Here are some details of the situation.

Barely a month and change after President Laporta gloriously announced Barça’s happy return to financial health, another hurricane looms in the shadows. Both La Liga and Spain’s supreme football body, the RFEF (Royal Spanish Football Federation), are looking to prove in court that Barça’s books were cooked.

In a case similar to the Barça Vision and Libero fiasco, La Liga states that Barça did not receive all amounts due on the sale of the 475 Spotify Camp Nou VIP seats from New Era Visionary Group, as it reported in its financial books. New Era Visionary Group is also FC Barcelona’s official telecom operator, to whom the club reported leasing a part of the Spotify Camp Nou seats for the next 30 years.

Shrouded in mystery

The deal in question was designed to give FC Barcelona an injection of €100 million, and featured two companies: Forta Advisors and New Era Visionary Group. Forta Advisors, the less recognizable of the two, is a consultancy company headquartered in London and Qatar. It has been in operation for seven months and has only two employees. 

New Era Visionary Group (NEVG) covered a reported €28 million, the final boost that put Barça well within the rules. It is this €28 million that La Liga is questioning. Both the timing of its arrival, and the company the cash was attributed to. 

La Liga especially points out that NEVG’s Barcelona offices are registered to a private property in Sant Andreu, belonging to Fransisco Maza and more suspiciously, the company is reported to have capital amounting to a mere €3000. While that is not at all strange in the financial world, the mystery surrounding NEVG’s sudden rise in the ranks leaves a lot of question marks.

NEVG’s website is modest, featuring only the company business statement, along with the announcement of its partnership (official telecom operator) with FC Barcelona. 

Further down, is a list of more partners, where again, FC Barcelona is listed last, as the crown jewel. The list features reputable multinationals like Samsung, Intel, Orange and yet another mysterious company, New Era Licensing and Merchandising. We could not find a website for New Era Licensing and Merchandising. Which has to go down as odd, for a company that is essentially in the branding business.

To amplify the mystique, Telefónica, a Spanish telecommunications company, and a former telecommunications partner of the club, was reportedly ready with as good a pitch as everyone but the tendering process that saw the contract go to NEVG and their partners Orange, another telecom giant, was according to sources, not ‘normal’. It was wrapped up too quickly. This could be filed under bitter rumblings but still, raises eyebrows.

NEVG’s CEO is also one Ruslan Bîrlădeanu, a former Moldovan politician who was convicted of real estate fraud amounting to millions. Not exactly a boy scout.

Worst-case scenario

FC Barcelona has not responded to La Liga and RFEF’s claim that the amount reported was more than the actual amount the club received. They (Barça) remain confident that they weren’t involved in any wrongdoings. However, this probe threatens Barça’s financial fair play footing and more directly, the registrations of Dani Olmo and Pau Victor. Should the decision go against Barça this time, the club will no longer be under the 1:1.

At the moment, Barça is bracing for a worst case scenario and new investors are emerging as a good option. The time frame to find them is narrow, but efforts are already underway to find solutions. 

The evidence La Liga is presenting, as cited above can be potentially categorized as overreach and the reported resulting lawsuit, frivolous. It does tell a compelling story though. However you slice it, Barça has their work cut out for them.