World
Laporta: FC Barcelona Is ‘Best Club In The World With 48 Champions Leagues’
FC Barcelona President Joan Laporta boasted that his is the best club in the world which has 48 Champions Leagues titles across the multiple sports it contests.
Laporta made these remarks on Wednesday afternoon from the Auditori 1899 near Camp Nou, as he led an ordinary meeting of the senate.
“The Barca brand is strong,” Laporta said. “We are the best club in the world, we have 48 Champions Leagues”.
Inheriting a debt-ridden club in 2021 that was described as being on “life support”, Laporta claimed that Barca is recovering financially.
“We are cleaning up the club in the shortest time and without putting the ownership model at risk. As long as I am president, Barca will always belong to the members,” Laport vowed.
“We have not improvised. We have saved the institution from a situation of ruin, we have made a journey through the desert and we can see the end. We have resisted and a lot, really. After a lot of effort, brave decisions and audacity, I can proudly say that, after three years, the club will have positive operating results. We are beginning to see the green shoots,” Laporta added.
Laporta explained that Barca’s wage bill has been reduced by $195 million (€180 million) while expenses have decreased and income has improved.
“Barca is not in a downward spiral, we are in a recovery phase and we are already seeing the green shoots. The club is in good health,” Laporta reiterated.
With this, he expects sporting success to return to men’s first team soon while also noting that it now “has more market value”.
“This season there has been a consolidation of young players trained at La Masia,” he said, while also thanking the now-departed former head coach Xavi Hernandez.
Touching on ‘Caso Negreira’ from which he has been exonerated, Laporta highlighted how Barca has “resisted baseless attacks” such as the case centered around payments to the former Vice President of Spain’s Referees Committee.
Laporata called it “an orchestrated campaign to discredit the club, but with the latest sentences it is being discredited”.
“There was nothing, ever. The club is the first interested in investigating it until the end because prestige and image are at stake.
“They have tried to condemn us before judging us and now it is seen that there is nothing. We have been able to stop these attacks because we have been united, closing ranks to show that Barca does not get dirty,” Laporta concluded on this.