Victor Font agrees with Barcelona president Joan Laporta on one thing at least.
This summer, Laporta said he wanted Barca to sign Spain’s European Championship-winning star Nico Williams, which would have meant triggering the Athletic Bilbao winger’s €58million ($63m; £49m) release clause.
But there is a disagreement between Laporta and Font on whether that was really possible. A Catalan fintech entrepreneur who ran for the Barca presidency in 2021, Font has criticised the club’s leadership and hopes to run again in the next elections, scheduled for June 2026.
“I wish we could sign Nico Williams as it is what we need,” he tells The Athletic. “The president has said it is possible, but that is not true. Today, it cannot be done. We hope it will be possible tomorrow, or the following day. But today, it is not.”
Born in Granollers, near Barcelona, Font is co-founder and chief executive of Delta Partners, a Dubai-headquartered financial technology consulting business bought by U.S. firm FTI Consulting in 2020. The 51-year-old is also a shareholder in Catalan media company Ara and football analytics company Kognia Sports Intelligence, and is a long-serving Barca ‘socio’ — one of the almost 150,000 club members who own Barca.
Since losing to Laporta in the March 2021 vote by those members, Font has called out the board’s policies, especially the financial ‘levers’ used to sign new players despite historic debts of more than €1billion. So far, they have staved off the threat of bankruptcy.
“We socios want to dream and to believe what we are being told,” Font says. “The problem is we’ve had three summers of being told all is fine, we’ll sign players and it’s all resolved.
“With every year that passes the credibility is falling. And this summer, if promises are not fulfilled, credibility will fall even further.”
When Laporta returned for a second term as Barca president three years ago, the club’s debts were €1.35billion, after predecessor Josep Maria Bartomeu oversaw policies that led to near financial ruin, especially after the pandemic.
Bartomeu, pictured in August 2020 (Pedro Salado/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
Laporta turned to those levers when he took charge, selling shares in club assets, such as future TV revenues, to provide upfront money to pay short-term debts and invest in the team. But the club have continued to spend more than they make, adding up to cumulative losses of almost €1billion over the past three financial years.
“Barca’s financial situation is worse now than when Laporta came in,” Font says. “We have bigger debts, fewer assets and we’re still not generating profits to pay off the debt and protect our socio model (which means members own the club).
“Bartomeu kicked the can so far that the current board had to deal with it. Now they’re doing the same, smacking the can as far as possible.”
Laporta’s supporters would argue the levers pulled in the summer of 2022 allowed for top signings such as Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde, who delivered the club’s first major trophy in four years with that season’s league title.
“But what allowed you to sign Lewandowski, Raphinha and Kounde was not just the sale of audiovisual rights,” says Font. “It was the 49 per cent of Barca Studios.
“Without the €200million on the books from Barca Studios, they could not have made those signings (within La Liga’s salary limit). And that operation — today — is fictitious. They sold it to some investors, who did not pay, and have not helped to build any business. The problem has been finding another investor.”
Laporta is in his second term as Barca president – he also served from 2003-2010 (Joan Valls/Urbanandsport /NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Font is referring to the failure of the Barca Studios project, the plan hatched by Laporta in 2022 to sell a share in the club’s media and future media income to raise funds, most of which never arrived.
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That has left a €100million hole in the club’s accounts for last season — meaning La Liga is not allowing them to register new players, or even existing squad members Inigo Martinez and Vitor Roque, for the 2024-25 campaign.
To fill this hole, Barca have explored ‘leveraging’ their kit and merchandising activities to raise short-term money this summer. That involved Laporta first attempting to end a €105million-a-year deal with Nike that runs until 2028, then, when a U.S. court ruled that impossible, looking to renegotiate the current arrangement.
“If you believe that after threatening Nike and treating them badly they’re not going to demand the maximum from you, you don’t know how corporate America works,” Font says. “We’re all waiting on the last-minute improvisation (from Laporta and his board) again.”
Barca have often had trouble registering players with La Liga in recent summers, but Laporta’s board have always found new, short-term solutions to keep adding to the squad.
“We hope the can is not just kicked further down the road,” Font says. “With Nike, I hope we don’t accept conditions that mortgage our future. With Barca Studios, we hope there are no more strange operations that don’t bring medium- and long-term value.”
If he had won the 2021 elections, Font was planning to install a football structure with former midfielder Xavi as head coach and the former Barca and Manchester United player — and son of club legend Johan — Jordi Cruyff as sporting director. After Laporta won, both were soon hired anyway.
Cruyff left after Barca won La Liga in June 2023 and last season did not go well. After Xavi announced in January he would step down in the summer, Laporta persuaded him to reconsider — only for the president to change his mind and fire the man who was a Barca icon as a player.
“Xavi wanted to coach Barca and he saw an opportunity with Laporta, but what happened was completely out of order,” says Font.
“We want people running the club who respect our legends, not force them out through the back door. It happened with Lionel Messi too — one of the biggest mistakes in the club’s modern history.”
Barca’s sporting director Deco, Laporta and Xavi pictured in April (Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images)
Messi left for Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer in the summer of 2021 after a near-20-year association with the club. Laporta blamed La Liga president Javier Tebas for making it impossible for Barca to keep him unless they entered La Liga’s CVC investment deal — a €2.7billion agreement with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners to invest in the competition.
But Font believes Real Madrid chief Florentino Perez’s European Super League project was to blame.
“It was possible to keep Messi,” he says. “Look at the millions spent on Lewandowski, Ferran Torres, Raphinha, Kounde. Laporta agreed with Tebas for Barca to enter the CVC deal. But Florentino said if you support CVC and Tebas, you’re out of the Super League. It was either Florentino or Messi, and Laporta chose Florentino.”
It is not just players and coaches who have left Barca in recent years. Plenty of executives have exited abruptly, including director of football Mateu Alemany, chief executive Ferran Reverter, corporate director Maribel Melendez and the head of the Camp Nou rebuild project, Jordi Llaurado.
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“Executives are leaving in all areas because they’re not allowed to use their experience and knowledge,” says Font. “Instead they’re told: ‘I’ll do this, I’ll decide this’, without any criteria. It’s all just friends and family — people who are known and trusted.”
The Barca president’s sister, Maite Laporta, is the club’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) manager. His cousin, Marta Segu, is director general of the club’s foundation. Alejandro Echevarria, Laporta’s former brother-in-law, has no formal role but is a trusted advisor. A personal friend, Manana Giorgadze, is Laporta’s chief of staff. Giorgadze’s daughter Paloma Mikadze is in charge of the club’s digital strategy.
Last May, it emerged a club supplier had helped directors pay the personal financial guarantees required when Laporta’s board took over in 2021. At the time, Font said he was worried it was “the tip of the iceberg”.
When asked to explain that phrase, he says the club should be more transparent over finances and transfer dealings. Questions include Deco becoming the club’s sporting director after previously being the agent of player Raphinha. Meanwhile, agent Pini Zahavi received €5million when Lewandowski, his client, joined from Bayern Munich in 2022 and Laporta’s son, Guillem, was also reportedly involved in the deal bringing Marcos Alonso from Chelsea to Barcelona that summer. Barca did not comment when this and other allegations were put to them as part of this article.
Laporta and Lewandowski, pictured in July 2022 (Eric Espada/Getty Images)
“There’s so little transparency,” Font says. “If you deny that Deco was advanced his commission as Raphinha’s agent, why not explain it proactively and transparently? If there are rumours of a business relationship between Laporta and Pini Zahavi, why not explain transparently all the commissions this gentleman receives from Barca? If Laporta’s son is Marcos Alonso’s agent, why not explain that transparently?”
For Font, Barca’s biggest problem is a lax governance model that runs back to past presidents Bartomeu, Sandro Rosell, Laporta in his first spell, Joan Gaspart and even Josep Nunez in the 1980s.
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He points to payments totalling €7.3million made by Barca to former referees chief Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira between 2001 and 2018 as an example, which have yet to be explained convincingly. Enriquez Negreira and Barca have denied the payments he received constitute any wrongdoing, with the club saying he was hired as an “external consultant” who provided reports “related to professional refereeing”.
“Nobody can say that Barca benefitted from help from referees,” says Font. “But someone needs to explain what happened there. The club needs professional control mechanisms, so that things like Negreira do not happen.”
Bartomeu resigned from the Barca presidency in October 2020 after a motion of censure, which Font helped organise, received more than 20,000 signatures from club members.
While Font has regularly criticised Laporta’s policies, and recently called on him to resign, there has been no such coordinated opposition during Laporta’s presidency. Recent months, however, have seen future presidential candidates begin to mobilise.
“We’re watching very closely to make sure that if red lines are crossed, we act — as we did before with Bartomeu,” Font says. “Waiting two years for new elections is not ideal. We need to change, modernise the club, professionalise it and put the best people in charge of each area.”
While Laporta continues to insist a potential super league could provide hundreds of millions of euros, the board’s most concrete financial solution is a renovated Camp Nou providing increased revenue from supporters and commercial partners. Barca have said they plan to return to the (partially completed) stadium in time for their 125th anniversary (the club was founded on November 29, 1899) after a project costing at least €900million that has proved chaotic and controversial.
Works at the Camp Nou, pictured in May (Javier Borrego/Europa Press via Getty Images)
“That will generate a lot of income, but it could end up costing €2billion,” says Font. “So all that you generate, above €100m a year, you must use to pay off the debt.
“Before the 2021 elections, there was a project ready (under Bartomeu), it could have been audited quickly, and executed. Not spending two years to remake the whole project, and then the whole financial environment was much worse.”
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Playing away from the Camp Nou has been another drag on Barca’s finances, with many fans staying away from their temporary home, the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys.
Membership fees at Barca are lower than at Real Madrid or Athletic Bilbao — two of the other member-owned clubs in Spain, along with Osasuna — but Font rejects the idea of increasing season ticket prices to ease the club’s financial problems. He believes the Barca brand is so strong that a new regime doing things differently could quickly generate profits.
Barca’s next presidential elections are scheduled for June 2026 (Victor Font)
“Not many clubs can generate €800million (in annual revenue), regardless of how you manage it,” Font says. “Barca has colossal, unique potential, with its social impact and power. So the transition process does not have to be very long.”
Font says that, were he to be elected president, he would bring back talents who have left Barca over the past decade, many of whom are still working and succeeding elsewhere in football.
“I’d create conditions so that people like Xavi, Messi, Carles Puyol, Pep Guardiola and (Inter Miami president of business operations and former Barca chief commercial officer) Xavier Asensi could return, in roles that bring value to the club,” he says.
“That’s our challenge and our great opportunity. They’re all still ‘cules’ (Barca fans), they all still love this club a lot. If they’re not here, it’s because the conditions to return are not right.
“In five years I can imagine the best Barca in history, with Lamine Yamal instead of Messi, with many homegrown players like Gavi, Alejandro Balde, Pau Cubarsi, and others like Pedri and Ronald Araujo.
“A club all socios can be proud of again, not just because it wins, but for how it wins.”
(Top photo: Victor Font)
