{"id":6674,"date":"2026-03-05T16:29:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joanlaporta.cat\/?p=6674"},"modified":"2026-03-05T16:29:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:29:24","slug":"oriol-amat-candidate-of-defensem-el-barca-to-preside-over-fc-barcelonas-economic-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joanlaporta.cat\/en\/oriol-amat-candidate-of-defensem-el-barca-to-preside-over-fc-barcelonas-economic-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Oriol Amat, candidate of “Defensem el Bar\u00e7a” to preside over FC Barcelona\u2019s Economic Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The economist will become the new president of the Club\u2019s Economic Commission if the candidacy led by Joan Laporta wins the elections<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oriol Amat was presented this afternoon as the candidate of \u201cDefensem el Bar\u00e7a\u201d to preside over FC Barcelona\u2019s Economic Commission, a collegiate consultative body made up of club members of recognized prestige and experience in economic management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to being a member of the institution and a former player in FC Barcelona\u2019s field hockey section, Oriol Amat is a leading figure in academia and economics at the international level. He served as rector of Pompeu Fabra University from May 2021 to March 2023 and has been Professor of Financial Economics and Accounting at UPF since 2001. He has also served as dean of the College of Economists of Catalonia, as well as a member of the advisory board of the National Securities Market Commission, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation, and PIMEC. He was also a member of the Parliament of Catalonia and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Montpellier. His research focuses on the analysis of the factors behind organizational success and the ethical aspects of finance. Amat has supervised more than fifteen doctoral theses and is the author of several books on economics and finance, some of which have been translated into various languages. He also collaborates with and serves on the editorial boards of several international scientific publications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economic recovery without affecting members and a return to the \u201cworld podium\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his speech, Oriol Amat explained his vision regarding the economic recovery that has taken place at FC Barcelona over the past five years. Amat referred to \u201cthe difficulties in paying salaries in 2021\u201d, as well as the cost of the sporting squad, \u201cwhich represented 98%,\u201d and emphasized that \u201cthe model was not sustainable and required immediate structural decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this regard, he praised the renegotiation of the debt \u201cto stabilize maturities and reduce sporting expenditure\u201d and specified some of the lines of action that have been carried out, such as strengthening the commercial area, boosting sponsorship and merchandising, structuring the financing of Espai Bar\u00e7a, or reinforcing liquidity by using \u201coperations involving future assets instead of levies on members.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amat explained that the current situation has allowed Bar\u00e7a to \u201creturn to the world podium,\u201d with nearly \u20ac975 million in annual revenue, while \u201cmaintaining one of the most affordable season tickets among the main European clubs.\u201d The \u201cDefensem el Bar\u00e7a\u201d candidate highlighted that \u201csporting costs have been reduced to 54% of revenues\u201d and pointed to other positive economic indicators, such as ordinary EBITDA \u201cwhich is the highest in recent years without extraordinary operations\u201d and net operating debt \u201cwhich has decreased compared to 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consolidation of institutional leadership under a modern governance model and international recognition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his speech, Oriol Amat argued that during Joan Laporta\u2019s term, the Club has developed an associative and democratic model of sports corporate governance aimed at ensuring that ownership of the entity remains with its members, legitimizing its governing bodies, and establishing a management system exercised by the President and the Board of Directors that is subject to a control regime through both statutory supervisory mechanisms and governance instruments. He also highlighted governance improvements, such as the creation of an Audit Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The candidate to preside over FC Barcelona\u2019s Economic Commission explained that the Club\u2019s corporate governance model \u201chas generated interest from universities and business schools of recognized international prestige.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, Amat referred to international reports supporting the institution\u2019s economic recovery over the past five years. He highlighted the improvement in the credit rating outlook by the international agency Morningstar DBRS, which noted \u201cthe strengthening of a more resilient revenue base and effective cost efficiency,\u201d as well as the increase in the club\u2019s valuation, which according to Forbes has risen from $4.8 billion in 2021 to $5.7 billion in the latest report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also explained that, according to Transfermarkt, \u201cthe value of the squad has increased by 38%\u201d and pointed to improvements in FC Barcelona\u2019s financial situation in relation to Financial Fair Play, which\u2014thanks to the return to the Spotify Camp Nou and commercial agreements\u2014has allowed the sporting salary limit to rise from \u20ac351 million to \u20ac432.08 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amat also highlighted that FC Barcelona is the first sports entity to obtain AENOR certifications (ISO 37301:2021 and UNE 19601:2017), which certify that the Club \u201chas internal control mechanisms that meet the most demanding legal standards, both nationally and internationally, and which establish a governance framework that helps strengthen the trust of the members.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To watch the speech, click here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The economist will become the new president of the Club\u2019s Economic Commission if…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sin-categoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joanlaporta.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joanlaporta.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joanlaporta.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joanlaporta.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joanlaporta.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6674"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/joanlaporta.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6675,"href":"https:\/\/joanlaporta.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6674\/revisions\/6675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joanlaporta.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joanlaporta.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joanlaporta.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joanlaporta.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}