Jaume Roures did not leave great memories in France following the fiasco Téléfoot. Launched in August 2020, the Mediapro group channel did not even last a year, leaving subscribers and journalists in the lurch. But among our Spanish neighbors, Roures maintains a good rating, since it has not experienced any failure and it is the Mediapro group which is responsible in particular for distributing the TV rights of the Iberian championship internationally.
The boss of the group is therefore someone very respected and well-publicized on the other side of the Pyrenees, and he is often consulted to give his opinion on various current issues. This time he wrote a card published in the daily Sport in which he gives a solution to put an end to the financial crisis that FC Barcelona is going through, a club of which he is also a supporter.
Barça on the stock market?
For him, in the future, new investments will be required to remain competitive. However, with the debt and the club’s situation, it is not possible. The solution found by Joan Laporta, aimed at getting rid of the club’s assets via its famous levers, is logically not viable in the long term. The solution for Roures? Change the club model. Currently managed by socios, a particular legal status in Spain, the club cannot, for example, welcome external investors into its capital.
For Roures, the solution would involve the creation of a foundation, through which members could always vote and give their opinion on major decisions linked to the club. Then, he wants a percentage of 20 to 25% of the club to be sold on the stock market. This would allow the arrival of large sums in the club’s capital, therefore settling the debt but also allowing it to be more competitive in the transfer window for example. Case to be continued, but this proposal risks dividing people in Barcelona, where the possibility of transforming the club into a SAD (sporting limited company) has already been brushed aside.
