José María Gay de Liébana, lecturer of Financial Economy and Accounting at the University of Barcelona; Sandro Rosell businessman and ex- vicepresident of the Barcelona FC, and Francesc Orriols, President of the Catalan Tennis Federation, this morning closed the International Seminar “Economics, Management and Optimization in Sports, after the impact of the financial crisis” (EMOS 09), organised by the Real Academia de Ciencias Económicas y Financieras (RACEF). The closing act was presided over by the President of the RACEF, Jaime Gil Aluja.

Gay de Liébana  and Rosell participated in the session on “Finance and management in football”. The first, making a presentation on the financial situation of the principal clubs from all over the world and giving a warning on the elevated indebtedness of the majority. “The problem is not so much with the leading clubs, which accumulate debt but contine generating income, but with the clubs that follow on, which contract players at high cost and are not generating income at the same level”, warns Gay, for whom control mechanisms such as the conversion of the Spanish professional clubs into sports limited companies has not resolved the problem niether has this been a guarantee faced with a hypothetical collaps of the system. Rosell, on the other hand,  presented the programme for finding future football stars Aspire, which his company BSM heads up jointly with the Government and the Football Federation of Qatar. A project which annually examines 6,500 14 year old boys who play the game in countries such as Africa, South America and Asia. “The present and the future of football is to be found in these emerging countries”, he asserted.

Finally, Orriols, spoke on the economic and sporting development of the Catalan Tennis Federation over the last 20 years and pointed out the strategic plan of the governing board that he presides for extending the number of federated tennis players following the model of the French Tennis Federation.