Many of you might not know that many teams compete under Barça’s name. There are professional teams, or sections, such as football, basketball, handball and hockey that are well known throughout Europe and the world. But there are also many people, in several different teams, that are not yet professional but still compete in Catalunya, Spain and beyond. They include the Barça baseball team, rugby team, ice hockey team, ice skating team (female), athletics and female football, to name just a few.

Last week, Barça officials announced they will shut down some of these sections and others will have their budgets seriously reduced. The reasoning of the board is that they are “non profitable”. Susana Monje, Barça’s Chief of Treasury, confirmed this, adding that even basketball falls into this category. However, the basketball program will  not be getting reduced or eliminated. Nor will the amount set aside for the expense of first team signings. Keep in mind, the whole budget for the baseball section is around 300,000 euros per year. Barça, by winning the Champions League, has earned 60 million euros.

So this decision is quite difficult to understand. First of all because sections were told, when Rosell was running for president, that they have their budgets increased in order to be able to compete both in Catalunya and the rest of Spain. Josep Juaneda, head of baseball, remembers these campaign promises that have not been honoured. The same man, Toni Freixa, that promised the sections a better future under Rosell’s presidency, was the one who communicated, through a press conference and not to the sections directly, that some of them will be eliminated and others will have their budget reduced enormously.

Second, the way in which the news was communicated. Josep Juaneda, head of baseball, is saddened that “nobody told us about it. We heard it through a press conference! That is not right! We could have negotiated reducing expenses, but they wouldn’t let us. They are just eliminating us from Barça.” All the affected sections filed an official complaint to the directive board, but the result remains uncertain.

Third, the professional sections of basketball, hockey and handball are also having their budgets reduced. It is uncertain how they will compete in the future, being successful sections in both Spain and Europe. Handball has just won the equivalent of the Champions League in their sport, one day after Barça’s victory at Wembley.

Some members, and not just a few of them, are watching this worried that Barça’s spirit has started to break over economic issues. Even more, it is not consistent that, after getting 150 million euros from the Qatar Foundation, that the very foundations of Barça are suffering because resources are not being managed in a proper way. These sections might not earn millions for the club, but they certainly belong and create what is called “the Barça family”. Most of these sections include men, women, children and entire families who play for their team every weekend. They do not play in a 100,000 seat stadium but in smaller venues, still contributing to the “Més que un club” phrase, which seems more diffuse now than ever.

Non professional sections are, and have been part of Barça’s history for many years. Like education and public health, they are not supposed to be profitable. They exist to strengthen the Barça community which, even if many are not aware of it, is not only based on football. Barça’s officials, many of them with managerial and economic backgrounds, should already know that a club like ours is not only based on making money. Being a family is Barça’s most important goal. However, by applying only financial criteria, the directive board is sending the wrong message. They are, on one hand, proving incapable of managing the income coming from football and, on the other, discriminating sections by their level of financial importance. That is not the path Barça should follow in order to become the best club in the world.