PwC, the accounting firm hired to go over Barcelona’s contract with I3 Ventures, has discovered details that leaves the club president in a bad spot.
The last two weeks has been nothing but an institutional circus for Barcelona. First, Josep Maria Bartomeu calls for the resignations of four of his board members. They oblige and are unexpectedly joined by two other members.
Then Emili Rousaud, one of the members who resigned, accuses someone of “sticking their hand in the till” insinuating someone is taking money from the club. His accusations caused Barcelona to release a statement threatening legal action.
More from Everything Barca
- FC Barcelona tracking Belgian Wonderkid
- FC Barcelona vs Betis Player Ratings
- Barça boss Xavi to get contract extension
- FC Barcelona planning swoop for Arsenal midfielder
- Barcelona interested in €30 million wonderkid
In an exclusive, Sport published a report containing some of the findings by PricewaterhouseCoopers regarding the club’s contract with I3 Ventures.
Suffice to say it does not look good for Bartomeu.
In their report, PwC found that Barcelona paid nearly five times the market value for the services provided by I3 Ventures.
Not only that but they hired the company, which is based out of Uruguay, when there were companies in Spain that could have done better work for a much smaller amount.
But perhaps the most potentially incriminating or, at the very least, suspect finding was that an invoice had been ripped into five parts to avoid being brought into the Adjudication Committee.
It’s important to remember that these are preliminary findings and that the accounting firm is still not complete with their audit. Early on it seems to demonstrate that either Barcelona were trying to hide something or they are incompetent when it comes to business dealings.
Either way it does not speak well of the board. What makes it even more curious is that it was Bartomeu himself who called for the audit as a way to quell the heat he was facing when this scandal first broke.
If that indeed was his plan, then it backfired because this will undoubtedly bring more questions pertaining to what exactly the club hired this company to do.
Yet, despite all the accusations, the in-fighting and the public criticism of the board by Lionel Messi , Bartomeu appears to be teflon. He’s survived through everything up to this point.
He may even get to finish out his last season as president. But the damage to his administration is evident which may end up hurting his plan for the next president to be a continuation of the current board. One thing is clear, a club the size of Barcelona need to have a better executive board.