FC Barcelona sharply increased its spending on player agent commissions last season. This is precisely what follows from the annual report recently published on the website of the sports institution. In particular, with Joan Laporta like his first full campaign at Barça multiplied payments by 100 representatives during the transfer market.

According to his annual report, Joan Laporta approved the amount of 3.13 million euros as “remuneration to sports agents” for the 21/22 season. In the previous campaign, marked by the pandemic and the few signings that the culé organization made due to the difficult financial situation, these costs barely amounted to 30,000 euros.

There were comings and goings in the team that summer, especially during the winter market. For example, Ferran Torres landed in January 2022 for an amount close to 50 million euros. A few months earlier they had worn a Barça jersey. Memphis Depay and Kun Aguero, one of the summer market’s most popular additions. It is true that the Argentine striker had to retire from football a few months later due to heart problems.

Except for the expensive signing Ferran Torres, All of Barcelona’s signings during last year’s season were made at zero cost as the signing player ended his contractual relationship with his previous club. However, this does not mean that the organization does not have to pay any amount. In fact, without paying any transfer fee, the representatives and the player in question are asking for a “tempting” amount of transfer fees, according to the First Division footballers’ agent.

However, since the previous board of directors was headed by Josep Bartomeu, Barcelona wasted money. up to 5.8 million euros as bonuses for representatives of football players who transferred to the Catalan club.

Jorge Mendes, his great friend

Among the main winners of the shower of millions that Joan Laporta distributed to the representatives is Jorge Mendes. The renowned Portuguese agent has maintained a close relationship with the Barcelona president over the years, and during Laporta’s two terms, Mendes delivered his players campaign after campaign.

The first actions of the Portuguese representative at Barça were in 2003, when Joan Laporta was at the head of the board. Deco, who now holds a position on the board of directors, or Rafa Marquez were some of these cases.

This season, Jorge Mendes pulled the strings again to be able to place his players in the Barça squad. The most notable cases were the case of Joao Cancelo who left Manchester City and the case of Joao Cancelo who left Manchester City. Joao Felix. The young Portuguese player did not want to stay at Atlético Madrid under Diego Pablo Simeone and did everything possible to end up in Barcelona. In fact, the footballer told the sports press that his “dream was to wear” a Barça shirt.

Ansu Fati, currently on loan to the Prime Minister, Alejandro Balde, Lamin Yamal, Nico Gonzalez and Abde (on loan at Real Betis) are just some of the FC Barcelona figures advised by Jorge Mendes.

Accused

The judge investigating Negreira’s case is investigating FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta on suspicion of bribery for payments during his first term (2003-2010), as he has already done with the rest of those involved in the case.

The judge, with his ruling, extends the investigation, which has already affected Barça as a legal entity in connection with payments by the club to the former vice-president of the Technical Arbitration Committee (CTA), José Maria Henriques Negreira, also to members of the board of director Laporta, “or that they were integrated into the organizational structure of the club and were effectively responsible for the payment decision.”

Negreira himself, his son Javier, former Blaugrana presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, former club directors Oscar Grau and Albert Soler, as well as Negreira’s company DASNIL 95 SL are also under investigation.