Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 10y

Sandro Rosell accuses Joan Laporta of bankrupting Barcelona

Former Barcelona president Sandro Rosell, and current incumbent Josep Maria Bartomeu, have accused their predecessor Joan Laporta of bankrupting the club during testimony in a Spanish court.

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Ex-Barcelona president Laporta and 16 other former board members are being sued in a long-running case first brought by Barcelona member Vicenc Pla and now endorsed by the club's current directors, it was outlined in a statement as the proceedings began on Monday.

The issue arose as, after winning the 2010 elections, the incoming team of directors claimed that what Laporta's board had said was a positive balance of 11.1 million euros in the club's accounts was actually a deficit of 79.6 million euros.

This meant -- Rosell and Bartomeu maintain -- that the Catalan club lost 47.6 million euros during Rosell's seven years in charge, and the entire board which was in place at the end of his term should be held responsible to the tune of 2.86 million euros per head.

On Tuesday, Rosell said during court proceedings that when he returned to the Camp Nou in 2010 the accounts handed over by the previous board were not complete and club was "technically bankrupt."

"In 2010, when the accounts were presented, they were not [completely] audited," Rosell said. "They were audited by Deloitte, [but] with four exceptions and three uncertainties. Before going to the AGM, the law says you must present real accounts. The club in 2010 was technically bankrupt, with a negative balance in its accounts."

Laporta was president between 2003 and 2010, while Rosell and Bartomeu had worked under his regime as directors before he resigned from the board in 2005 after a falling out.

On Monday, Bartomeu said in his testimony that the poor financial management of the club had come in the period between when he and Rosell resigned in 2005, and returned in 2010.

"In 2003 we came into a club in a difficult situation, a bad time, and we tried to make changes to improve the finances," he said. "In 2010 it was a surprise for us, because we thought the reality was good, but we found ourselves with debts above the club's capabilities and liquidity problems."

Both Rosell and Bartomeu sidestepped a number of questions around actual financial details, saying that current vice-president Javier Faus would answer those during his evidence.

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