Barcelona bonus cover rises

Barcelona’s footballing success is hiking its insurance premiums, club vice president Joan Boix has told Bloomberg.

“It’s more and more difficult to get insurance because we are winning,” Boix said. The insurance covers bonus payments for winning. The more Barcelona wins the higher the premiums.

Insurers are retreating from covering soccer clubs against bonuses because only a few elite teams are requesting protection, making it hard to spread the risk among many clients, said Jonathan Cole, an insurance broker at Jardine Lloyd Thompson.

Major European clubs have discussed pooling cash each season with the winning club using the pot to pay bonuses.