Barcelona's accounts have drawn interest beyond Spain once again. The Athletic, the sports platform owned by the New York Times, has analysed the club's financial situation using its figures for the 2025/26 season.
Barcelona generated revenues of 1,020.5 million euros, becoming the second club in football history to break the one-billion-euro barrier after Real Madrid. Yet they ended the year with losses of 17.8 million euros after tax.
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Total financial debt as of 30 June 2026 stood at around 1,840.3 million euros, up from 1,450.5 million the previous year. That marks an increase of nearly 27%.
Since the close of the financial year, the club has issued further debt worth 105 million euros over ten years. That makes them a candidate to break the two-billion barrier during the 2026/27 season.
Espai Barça: the key to the crisis
More than 1,200 million euros of the debt is tied to the Espai Barça project. The club is banking on recouping the outlay through new revenues from Spotify Camp Nou, expected to add around 250 million euros per year once the work is finished.
Delays to the build have piled on the financing burden. Barcelona paid more than 90 million euros in interest over the last year, while the project's budget anticipates the need for around 300 million euros extra to complete it.
Obligations also loom large: around 149 million euros in 2026/27, 346 million in 2027/28 and 366 million in 2029/30.
Liquidity pressures
The Athletic points to the Anthony Gordon deal as an example of those liquidity pressures, The Athleticwith Barcelona forced to take out a bank loan to cover the first instalment for Newcastle, worth 22.3 million euros. The interest pushes the final cost higher.
According to the club, these moves come down to cash flow management amid the delay to the stadium works.
Barcelona have obligations worth 905 million euros due during the 2026/27 season, against current assets of 529 million. That leaves negative working capital of 376 million euros.
Wages and revenues
The wage bill rose to 573.7 million euros last season, an increase of 12%, and the 2026/27 budget anticipates it climbing to a record 648.9 million euros.
Commercial revenues, meanwhile, rose to 564.1 million euros, while Barça Licensing & Merchandising brought in 189.5 million. The gradual return to Camp Nou has begun to boost stadium revenues, especially from VIP areas.
The Athletic does not seeBarcelona teetering on the edge of the abyss. But they are treading a very fine financial line: revenues above one billion euros set against losses, and debt approaching two billion.
The club's economic future stays tied to completing Espai Barça as quickly as possible, driving up Camp Nou revenues and refinancing the "mountain of debt" as obligations and interest keep mounting.
For now, the Catalan club face a genuine economic paradox. They have never brought in this much money, yet they have never needed to manage figures of this magnitude to stay competitive among Europe's elite.
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