ISL Futbol Limited Liability Company, an American sports marketing company with its tax headquarters in Charlotte (North Carolina) and headquarters in Miami (Florida), He deposited 350,000 euros ($401,135) into a Banc Sabadell account on November 22, 2021 and which is in the name of Joan Laporta, president of Fútbol Club Barcelona, and all the members of its board of directors: Rafael Yuste, Antonio Escudero, Elena Fort, Juli Guiu, the resigned Eduard Romeu and Jordi Llauradó , Josep Cubells, Ferran Olivé, Josep Maria Albert, Xavier Barbany, Miquel Camps, Alfons Castro, Josep Ignasi Macià, Aureli Mas, Xavier Puig, Àngel Riudalbas, Joan Solé and Joan Soler. Also in the name of Francesc Pujol, a businessman from Lleida who paid for the electoral campaign and who endorsed Laporta’s candidacy for the presidency of FC Barcelona and at the last breath could not enter as a director when it was found that he did not meet the statutory requirement of having a minimum of five years of seniority as a partner.
Payment made by ISL to the account of Barça directors through Bank of America. /EPC
This solidarity checking account was opened on March 15, 2021, just two days before Joan Laporta officially took office as president of FC Barcelona. A day later, that account received two entries: one of 750,000 euros from JBM Investments 2014 SL, owned by Israeli businessman Morris MosheBenisty, and another of 700,000 euros from Capital Planet SL, whose sole administrator is Xavier Laporta, brother of the president of FC Barcelona. Thanks to this strong injection of cash, it was possible for the Barça managers to meet the first payment of the commissions and expenses of the guarantee, which amounted to nearly 900,000 euros and were paid days later.
at dawn
The sole and exclusive objective of this current account was to satisfy Banco Sabadell for the interest accrued on the cost of the guarantee signed by Laporta and the members of his board of directors, which was formalized in the early hours of March 17 at the Ariel Sultán Benguigui notary office, in number 550 Diagonal in Barcelona. Said guarantee amounted to a total of 124,651,950 euros and was the one that was subsequently presented to the Professional Football League (LFP), thus complying with what was then required by the Sports Law, a bank guarantee of 15% of the expenses budget of the current season, in this case, 2020-2021.
The interest applied by Banc de Sabadell for those 124.6 million euros was around 2% per year, which yielded an average of 124,000 euros per manager. The guarantee was formalized and presented hours before the regulatory deadline expired, that same day, March 17, before 9:00 p.m. That is to say, there was a latent risk that the presidential elections would be repeated.
In fact, some jurists doubt the legality of this takeover, since more than half of the money that was provided as collateral came through people who were not part of the candidacy or members of the board. For example, Jaume Roures, through his company Orpheus Media SL, guaranteed 30 million euros to Banc de Sabadell with a policy and José Elías guaranteed 40 million more. According to these same opinions, the elections could have been repeated if one of Laporta’s two electoral opponents in the 2021 elections, Víctor Font and Toni Freixa, had challenged them.
It is ‘vox populi’ within FC Barcelona that The management of that account and the payment of the interest on the guarantee has generated a lot of discomfort and controversy among the directors.. In fact, it has been one of the very few issues that have caused serious disagreements in the boards of directors. The first to show his anger was president Joan Laporta himself, tired of going after some of his fellow board members to make them pay the expenses. Laporta appointed director Ferran Olivé, treasurer of the club and de facto CEO of the entity since the departure of Ferran Reverter, to manage that current account and coordinate with his fellow board members so that they fulfilled his obligations.
Currently, and despite the obligation to endorse having disappeared after the modification of the Sports Law of January 10, 203 (it is subject to what the members of the clubs that are not SAD decide), the The Tax Agency has initiated an investigation process into this endorsement. Among other issues, the Treasury wants to know the identity of all the people who guaranteed it and the amount they contributed. Businessman Jose Eliaswho was the most endorsed, has already gone to the Treasury to give his testimony.
Barça licensee
At the time of ISL Futbol LLC making that transfer of 350,000 euros, said American company was a licensee of FC Barcelona. ISL, as well as ISL Agency, They have been working with the Barça club since 2015, already under the presidency of Josep Maria Bartomeu. That year, ISL opened the first FC Barcelona schools and campuses in the United States, specifically in Raleigh, Charlotte, Richmond, Cincinnati and Louisville. Since then, and also with the arrival of Joan Laporta to the presidency, his business has not stopped growing. Currently, ISL has schools in Charlotte, Austin, Northern Virginia, San Diego, Chicago, Columbus, in the USA, and San José in Costa Rica. In addition, every summer it organizes the so-called ‘soccer camp’ in numerous cities in the North American country. In the last summer of 2023, in 35 different locations.
Only six months after that income of 350,000 euros, in May 2022, FC Barcelona officially announced that ISL LLC would be the company in charge of organizing two friendly matches of the Barça first team in the United States that summer. ISL was responsible for part of the Barça tour, specifically two matches; the first, on July 19 against Inter Miami at the DRV PNK Stadium and the second, on the 30th of that same month, against the New York Red Bulls at their stadium. That summer Barça played two more matches in the United States, facing Real Madrid in Las Vegas on the 24th and Juventus in Dallas on the 27th, although those two friendlies were organized by another American company.
At the head of ISL LLC and ISL Agency are two young Catalan entrepreneurs, Álex Isern (co-founder and CEO) and Marc Segarra (Managing Partner), who started from scratch in the United States with the FC Barcelona schools and today manage a prosperous company. Not only do they run football schools, they also organize camps, tours and friendly matches, they have opened a player representation office and they are specialists in sponsorships. In addition, they are present in Barcelona with an office located on Passeig de Gràcia.
Jordi Alba, Marc Segarra and Álex Isern (both from ISL), and Sergi Roberto, on Barça’s American tour in July 2022. / ISL
EL PERIÓDICO, from the same editorial group, has been able to contact the representatives of ISL and They admit that those 350,000 euros were “a loan”, At the same time, they want to emphasize that the organization of those two friendly matches was not any compensation and was the result of their hard work of all these years in the United States and extensive knowledge of the market in that country, hence they separate one thing from the other.
This medium also knows that FC Barcelona, or rather the directors of the Barça entity, have not yet returned those 350,000 euros to the ISL company in all the time that the current account has been open, just over three years, something that Yes, they have done, for example, with Joan Laporta’s brother.
2024-05-15 04:33:22
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