The club has been forced to renounce the services of its first star, Argentine Lionel Messi, as Spanish league laws have ruled out the possibility of renewing the world’s best player due to budget confusion. Messi’s departure has caused a huge technical gap for the team, as the style of play has revolved around him most of the time he has played for Barcelona. In turn, the removal of Argentina’s large “flea” salary has contributed to creating a relative balance in the club’s budget.
Laporta’s second step was to fire former manager Ronald Koeman and replace him with the club’s son Javi Hernandez, who quickly gained technical balance with the existing elements with little help, allowing him to finish second in the league last season. season, as a qualitative achievement versus the team’s floundering start.
The season is over and the recovery process has begun. The Catalan club is forced into a new reality that requires a reduction in its spending to ensure financial sustainability. As a result, the Barcelona administration has ordered a policy to guarantee a short-term replacement, focusing on free deals such as Milan midfielder Frank Kessir and Chelsea defender Andrés Christensen. Notably, the club has been keen to make deals for large sums, despite the financial restrictions imposed on it by the Spanish Federation, which may be inconsistent with the horrible crisis Barcelona is going through.
The problem is not liquidity, as many parties are willing to lend to the club because of its big brand. The problem is that the club does not record losses in excess of its income, which is difficult to achieve due to its annual losses and accumulated debts. As a result, Barcelona have struggled to sign up new players or pay large sums to include the stars, and have also faced barriers to renewing the contracts of some of their players, such as the Frenchman who and Ousmane Dembele.
financial venture
Laporta’s biggest move was to greenlight a proposal from the club’s board of directors to sell some of the television advertising rights in the coming years in exchange for an immediate injection of money. Management expects that this measure will bring up to 700 million euros, but the future consequences may outweigh the benefits of the present.
Laporta is forecasting a “theoretically” bright future that tempts investors to keep the club alive in the present, knowing that those profits are tied to a huge real estate commitment for Barcelona’s future. The club’s 10% of the league’s television rights will be sold over the next 25 years to American investment fund Sixth Street for € 207.5m, with Laporta noted to be open for sale up to 25% of the proceeds to sale. broadcast of the local league, according to what is famous in the center of Spain.
In the same context, Laporta announced that the administration is working on four separate deals and hopes to complete them quickly to get away from the spending ceiling for next season, which is estimated to be negative (minus 144m euros), and the club’s debts are nearly 800m euros, of which more than 310 million euros will be owed over the next 12 months.
The Barcelona administration will sell the broadcasting rights to the local league
No wealthy Barcelona owner was available to pump shares and it was difficult to refinance the team’s debt, which prompted Laporta to turn to cash generation this way. This is not necessarily a bad move, but it is certainly a risk that Laporta and his management may not face future consequences when they are there to make a profit in the short term.
Barcelona have made approximately € 165m from the La Liga broadcast rights deal for the 2020-2021 season, and if the club achieves that amount over the next 25 years and sells 25% of its rights, it will will end up providing more than a billion euros. . So Laporta’s preference for current liquidity, with its unlikely future implications, shows itself in savings and an attempt to thrive in the coming years, as was the case with AC Milan of Italy, which “sacrificed ”A few fight seasons. from the local and European world, and then returned last season and achieved the championship title thanks to his technical balance and administrative balance.
This is an important time in Barcelona’s history that Laporta could be made a genius if he succeeds, or it will be talked about in the way Barcelona fans talk about Bartomeu. The coming years will show the results of the current policy, and it is certain that the club is starting a big gamble with dubious success.
Source: Al-Akhbar
