Vice-president Javier Faus, the man in charge of Barcelona´s economic strategy, considers the world´s biggest clubs must cease to live beyond their means, and in a brutally honest assessment has cited his own club as an example of this.
Faus should know what he is talking about: in 2010 he was appointed to the board of Spanish real estate group Colonial, a publicly-traded company with a portfolio valued at more than US$10bn, and is also founder of Meridia Capital, a private equity firm which invests in premium hotel properties around the world.
Only last month he spoke of the need for Barca to be more self-sufficient, saying: “If we are to make a financial investment it will be for the first team and the youth academy. We have €45m to spend this summer, although we do not rule out spending more, but if it reaches €65m or €70m then we will have to look at alternative ways of raising the rest.” Hence, the recent departure of striker Bojan to Roma for a fee of €11m, which was used towards the €26m purchase of Udinese´s Alexis S
