The ‘miracle’ month: How Barcelona gambled and emerged from a $1.97bn black hole
How Barcelona gambled and emerged from a $1.97bn black hole: The deeply indebted Catalans took a risk with their future in order to permit a stunning summer spending binge in order to support Barcelona’s efforts to reassert themselves as a dominant force in both the La Liga and the Champions League competitions that are currently underway.
A year after they were forced to let Lionel Messi go as eye-watering reported debts of 1.35 billion euros (A$1.96 billion) crippled the club, Barcelona has spent 153 million euros (A$222m) on transfer fees alone to strengthen their squad, with Robert Lewandowski being the most notable new arrival.
This comes a year after they were forced to let Messi go as eye-watering reported debts of 1.35 billion euros (A$1.96 billion) crippled.
“We couldn’t have asked for a more thrilling time of year. “There is nothing that would give me greater pleasure than to make all of the fans happy,” Coach Xavi Hernandez remarked prior to the 6-0 friendly triumph over Mexican club Pumas UNAM that took place over the weekend.
“That implies being successful in winning prizes. This is the most important goal for us.
After three years of difficulties, both on and off the field, hope has returned to Camp Nou this summer. Club president Joan Laporta spoke of an exciting “new era” when the club announced that Lewandowski would be joining Barcelona as a player.
Euphoria
On the same day, the heading “Euphoria” appeared on the cover of the regional newspaper Sport. Even the biassed sports newspaper Marca, which is located in Madrid, recognized that Barca was “frightened” after their thrashing of Pumas UNAM the previous weekend, which was the match in which Lewandowski scored his first goal after moving to Bayern Munich from Bayern Munich.
However, the method that Barcelona used to acquire the financial resources necessary to recruit Lewandowski, as well as center-backs Jules Kounde and Andreas Christensen, AC Milan midfielder Franck Kessie, and Leeds United’s Brazilian winger Raphinha, has caused some people to raise their eyebrows.
Barcelona was aware that in order to comply with the tight spending restrictions imposed by La Liga’s financial regulations, they needed to immediately generate money in order to be able to invest in any signings, and more importantly, in order to register any new players.
They moved swiftly to begin selling off assets in order to bring in money by triggering a series of what has been variously referred to as economic “levers.”
The club received approximately 400 million euros in exchange for selling 25 percent of its domestic broadcast rights to an investment business in the United States for the next quarter of a century.
On August 1, Barcelona sold 24.5 percent of Barca Studios to Socios for the price of 100 million euros. Barca Studios is responsible for managing the club’s digital business as well as audiovisual productions. Another 25 percent of Barca Studios was sold to the United States investment firm GDA Luma for the price of another 100 million euros.
La Liga
A total of 600 million euros had been poured in over the course of a few short weeks to bolster the reserves.
The intention was to clean up the club’s finances, make it possible for La Liga to raise the salary cap, and enable all of the new recruits to be registered before the start of the new season.
On top of that, Barcelona inked the largest sponsorship agreement in the club’s history with Spotify, which is a music streaming powerhouse, bringing in an estimated 435 million euros for the music streaming company to feature on the club’s shirts and to have the name rights to the Camp Nou stadium. [Club Shirts]
As a result of these transactions, which have a combined value of one billion euros, Barcelona is in a strong position to once again become serious title contenders as they get ready to play Rayo Vallecano this coming weekend.
It can only be determined with the passage of time whether or not the decision to mortgage a portion of the club’s assets in exchange for an immediate influx of cash was a wise one.
In spite of this, Barcelona is still waiting for La Liga to give them permission to register its five new arrivals, but the club is hopeful that they will be allowed to do so before the start of the season this coming weekend.
They are also planning on lowering their pay expense in the hopes that this will help alleviate some of their financial strain.
It has been suggested by the Catalans that a contract Frenkie de Jong signed in 2020 may not have been valid, as part of the Catalans’ efforts to convince Frenkie de Jong to leave their organization. The Dutch central midfielder has expressed his desire to continue playing.
There are also rumors that Memphis Depay, Martin Braithwaite, and Samuel Umtiti could be on their way out of the Camp Nou, with the latter of those players being pursued by Juventus.
On top of that, there have been efforts made to convince particular players, like Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets, to accept wage decreases. This is something that has been attempted.
The “economic miracle” that Barcelona has been experiencing, as the media has dubbed it, has not yet been translated into a “footballing miracle.”