Barca forced to pay out former financial director from Bartomeu era

The High Court of Justice of Catalonia has ordered FC Barcelona to pay Pancho Schröder, the former finance director during Josep Maria Bartomeu's tenure, 300,000 euros, but has stopped his claims for even more compensation after he was unfairly dismissed just three months after Joan Laporta became president of the club in 2021. The former executive, who in 2016 launched an internal investigation within Barça into payments to Enríquez Negreira's companies, was paid almost half a million euros during his last year in office, Prensa Ibérica media group's paper El Periódico has learned.

According to the ruling to which this newspaper has had access, Schröder was unfairly dismissed on 18 June 2021, and Barça must pay him 296,450 euros in compensation.

An amount in which the Justice understands that the agreed concepts are recognised, that is to say, the fixed annual salary plus 30% of the variable, while the former financial director maintains that the agreed bonuses should also be taken into account to increase that amount. The ruling, which confirms a judgment of the 32nd Labour Court of Barcelona, can still be appealed in cassation for the unification of doctrine before the Labour Chamber of the Supreme Court.

Schröder, who for the moment has not achieved his objective of increasing the compensation for his dismissal, was one of Josep María Bartomeu's strong men during his six years at the head of the club and the person responsible for the 'caja' of FC Barcelona in the years when the relationship with José María Enríquez Negreira was severed.

Looking into the Negreira payments

In November 2016, as told by 'Infolibre'', Óscar Grau, the then executive director of Barça, ordered to stop the payment of an invoice to one of the companies in the Negreira case until he spoke to Albert Soler, director of Professional Sports. A few days later, Pancho Schröder, in his role as financial director, asked the head of administration for a history of the club's payments to the three companies linked to the referees' number 2.

That did not, however, result in an immediate end to the relationship, as Barcelona and Enríquez Negreira did not part ways until 2018, precisely at the moment when the two companies were to meet.

In the framework of the Negreira investigation, Pancho Schröder is not one of the directors denounced by the Public Prosecutor's Office, but Óscar Grau is. According to the written statement submitted at the beginning of March, the former CEO of the club, i.e. managing director, is allegedly accused of corruption between private individuals in the field of sport, disloyal administration and forgery of documents. In total, Grau could face up to 10 years in prison, as could Josep María Bartomeu and Albert Soler. For the crimes attributed to Sandro Rosell and José María Enríquez Negreira, the sentences could reach up to seven years in prison.

Big salary

According to the sentence, Pancho Schröder's fixed salary went from 190,000 euros in October 2015, when he was hired, to 220,000 euros at the time he was dismissed by Joan Laporta in 2021.

However, the variable and bonus part of the CFO's contract was just as important, or sometimes even bigger, than the fixed salary. For example, in the year prior to his dismissal, Schröder was paid 462,044 euros, this newspaper has learned. Of these, 200,000 euros were in the form of generic bonuses, around 17,400 euros in variable remuneration and a further 14,800 euros were justified in his pay slip as a "retro contribution bonus", which could refer to compensation for the Copa del Rey that Barça lifted in the 2020-2021 season.

The former director, who is currently president of the Real Club de Golf el Prat in Barcelona, was one of those responsible for launching the search for funding for the Espai Barça project to remodel the stadium.

On 23 December 2019, FC Barcelona included in Schröder's contract a three-year bonus of 90,000 euros and a special section dedicated to the new Camp Nou project: 145,200 euros in commission when the refinancing structure was approved at the assembly and another 74,800 euros if after four or five years the structure was refinanced again for 25 years. In total, an equivalent to an 'extra' fixed annual salary of 220,000 euros, which this newspaper has not been able to confirm whether or not he was paid, as the assembly's approval of the 1.5 billion euros in financing for Espai Barça did not come until four months after his unfair dismissal.

"Sewer rat"

Schröder is also one of the participants in Josep Maria Bartomeu's WhatsApp group of directors in which, according to the Mossos d'Esquadra, part of the Barçagate case investigating a possible disclosure of secrets for the leaking of Leo Messi and Gerard Piqué's contracts was hatched.

According to the investigation, the group included the CEO Óscar Grau, the director of strategy and innovation Javier Sobrino, the financial director Pancho Schröder and the then head of the legal department of FC Barcelona, Román Gómez Ponti, along with the president and other executives.

In these chats exclusively revealed by El Periódico de Catalunya, part of the Prensa Ibérica group, Ponti dropped the possibility of leaking Messi and Piqué's contracts, describing the former as a "sewer rat" and the latter as a "big son of a bitch", among other rude terms.