Seventeen ex-Barcelona directors sued over team finances

FC Barcelona’s Munir El Haddadi Mohamed gestures during a Spanish La Liga match against Athletic Bilbao at the Camp Nou stadium

Former Barcelona football club directors, including ex-president Joan Laporta, are being sued over alleged financial losses following the team’s most successful season.
The trial of Laporta and 16 other board officials started on Monday before a judge in the city, a court official said. The lawsuit was brought by the current board. Directors of football clubs have to cover any losses during their mandate under Spanish law.
In June 2010, at the end of Laporta’s mandate, his board published financial data that showed a 9 million-euro (USD11.6 million) profit for the year to June 2010.
The incoming board led by Sandro Rosell commissioned an audit by KPMG LLP which stated the team had a 79.6 million euro loss for the period.
The audit, which was made public, detailed spending on entertaining and travel including private jets that were chartered five times by club officials, for as much as 150,000 euros on one occasion.
Barcelona had won all six competitions it contested in the 2008-9 season, including the Champions League and Spain’s La Liga.
Laporta said in 2010 his management of the club was “impeccable” and he stood by the accounts. He won’t comment again until after the case is over, his spokesman Jordi Finestres said in an e-mail today.
Some of the 16 directors declined to appear in court, a court official said. The case is expected to last several days.
Barcelona’s current president is Josep Maria Bartomeu. Rosell quit in January a day after a judge said he would look into an allegation he appropriated funds in Brazilian player Neymar’s move to the club. Rosell denies wrongdoing. Alex Duff, Bloomberg