FC Barcelona's VP for finance announces surprise resignation

FC Barcelona’s vice president in charge of finance, Eduard Romeu, has resigned from his post in a surprise move on Thursday morning. 

Romeu will return to the private business sector and explained that combining a new role in his career would be impossible with the dedication needed to fulfill the role at Barça which he has for the past two and a half years. 

He and club president Joan Laporta gave a press conference on Wednesday morning at the club’s facilities to explain the departure, while taking no questions from the press. 

Laporta hailed Romeu as a key figure in the financial stabilization that FC Barcelona has undergone in the past few years, as the current mandate took over the reins of the club during a very difficult period of financial stress. “You have been a key person in the economic rescue of Barça,” Laporta told Romeu. 

Romeu himself acknowledged that he was satisfied with his work done at the Catalan club, turning the bleak financial situation around, but admitted that now the conditions are different, allowing him to leave after a “very intense” period at Barça.

He also celebrated the club’s passage to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and explained that reaching the last eight of the competition ensured the arrival of finances that allow for his departure. 

However, despite the public explanations, numerous media reports suggest that Romeu’s reasons for resigning were not limited only to pursuing professional projects away from FC Barcelona, but that also he is not happy with the financial situation of the club. 

Sports outlet The Athletic report that there was a shortfall of some €30 million in the Catalan club’s budget for this season, owing to lower matchday revenue at Montjuïc than expected. 

Romeu is not the first high-profile executive to depart from the club during Laporta’s second tenure as president. Ferran Reverter walked away in February 2022 amid speculation that he was unhappy with financial aspects of the management of the club, Jaume Guardiola followed him out the door some months later, while Maribel Meléndez’s departure was announced just two weeks ago. 

In February, the blaugrana’s salary cap was reduced by La Liga by €66 million, down to €204 million. In reality, Barça’s squad costs approach €500 million, but these La Liga limits will mean that they will be forced to demonstrate savings and significant earnings before the can register any other players in the summer. 

Romeu was seen by many within the club as one of Laporta’s most important executives, and his resignation will leave a significant gap in the club’s structural leadership.