Barcelona required loans to ease the pain caused by years of poor decision-making in the transfer market and extravagance on player salaries, all of which was exacerbated by a pandemic that shattered commercial and matchday income.
The idea, therefore, was to apply for a loan from a bank and
use anticipated future broadcast revenues from playing in the Champions League
as the security for the loan.
UEFA’s response was a straightforward “no” and European
football’s governing body explained to the Barcelona official that they could
not use several years’ worth of future Champions League television money as
security because there was no guarantee they would qualify for the tournament
in every season. This is because Champions League qualification is secured
through sporting merit, rather than a birthright.
The Barcelona official was described as genuinely surprised
by the rejection.
When approached this week, UEFA told The
Athletic it was unable to comment publicly due to “the confidentiality
of the process”.
This summer, the curiosity has, in places, developed into
envy and resentment, as Barcelona spent a combined €140million (£117m, $142.8m)
to sign Brazil winger Raphinha from Leeds United, Poland forward Robert
Lewandowski from Bayern Munich and France centre-back Jules Kounde from
Sevilla. They also picked up Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie from Chelsea
and AC Milan respectively on free transfers.
Last August, club president Laporta gave a press conference
in which he revealed a debt of €1.35billion (£1.13bn, $1.38bn) before outlining
how the club’s salary obligations accounted for 103 per cent of income (even
after Lionel Messi had left the club as a free agent once his deal expired) and
said the club’s net worth stood at minus €451million.
A loan worth €80million had been taken out to cover player
wages earlier in the calendar year. Another line of credit worth €550million
had been required from Goldman Sachs to restructure the club’s debts.
The club, under their new president, are pursuing a
different approach to returning to their former glories, instead heading down
the route of activating several economic “levers” designed to inject cash into
the coffers, fund new signings and get the good times rolling once more.
Barcelona have agreed to sell 25 per cent of their La Liga
television rights income for the next 25 years to global investment firm Sixth
Street. The first 10 per cent of this agreement is worth a total capital gain
of €267million, while the figure for the rest has not been publicly disclosed
but is understood to be worth over €300million.
This has divided opinion. Barcelona currently receive around
€160million for domestic and international La Liga television rights, which
means that, in effect, they will be giving up €40million next year (as 25 per
cent of the TV rights), but this figure would be expected to rise or drop
relative to increases or decreases in the value of La Liga’s broadcasting deals.
On Monday, while announcing the signing of Kounde (another
who is not yet registered to play), Barcelona announced they had sold a 10 per
cent stake of their Barca Studios production house to the blockchain-enabled
fan token platform Socios.com, for €100million. That money, however, will not
be presented in its entirety upfront.
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