The health crisis caused by Covid-19 is going to cause an economic impact that has not been evaluated yet but is overwhelming in most companies. To minimize these losses, the government, through the Official Credit Institute (ICO), offers aid to these companies, including soccer clubs such as Sports Public Limited Companies. In this aid, the four football entities that are not SAD, which are Athletic Bilbao, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Osasuna, were exempted, who have joined together to ask the government by a letter to the Higher Sports Council for a shield against losses economic derived from the Pandemic.
The initiative came from Athletic Bilbao and was advanced by El Confidencial. It is that the losses that may occur this year in the closing of accounts are considered as losses of “major cause” and do not count at the end of the year in order to have to endorse them with the assets of managers.
According to the Sports Law, if the teams that are not Sports Public Limited Companies present losses these must be endorsed by the respective boards in solidarity, less in the case of Real Madrid, which must be covered by the president. It must be emphasized that the balance of losses is made after the end of the term and not season by season. For example, in the case of Barcelona, the board of Bartomeu adds more than 200 million euros in surplus for what it has been in office and the losses of this course would not pose a danger to endorse the managers.
In the Blaugrana club he has also expanded the lines of credit that he had open with five banks (CaixaBank, Santander, Bankia, BBVA and Sabadell) worth 120 million uros. These policies were renewable from year to year and Barcelona has renegotiated an extension of the same to 10 percent, extending them to three years. Banking institutions have availed themselves of special government measures for the economic recovery of the pandemic, requesting the Official Credit Institute to endorse them, thus assuming the State 80 percent of the risk. Barcelona had never needed a guarantee of this type because of the great capacity to generate resources.