Barcelona facing financial troubles after investors threaten to back off
when will it end for God's sake.
when will it end for God's sake.
Official: FC Barcelona charged with Corruption over payments to former referees chief | UEFA open investigation
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Facing financial trouble? They've been a financial fiasco for years.
I can think of a way they could replace that €65m
Please don't.
Last year still stings.
I told you to lube up
don’t worry, the barca loonies will be here shortly to tell you that it’s all fine. part of the plan actually. it couldn’t be going better.
Sorry I ate beans in anticipation of such an offer today, maybe another day.
Everyone must’ve forgotten their levers
Time for levers to cover last year's levers.
This is a joke. They are in financial mess but they are still signing players.
This is a joke. They are in financial mess but they are still signing players.
When will it come to light? And wouldn’t they sell the club before it would fall into nothing
How many levers do they have left?
More than just a club 
I can't understand their logic. Last year, after they did all those levers, they spent 160 mil on new players plus they signed couple of expensive free agents.
When you don't have money then you save money, not spending something which you don't have. Right?
When you don't have money then you save money, not spending something which you don't have. Right?
Wait till you hear that Roures admitted paying for Barca's signings in 1988 through TV3, that is the main public television channel in Catalonia
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I think they are all banned.
I dream of the day Barca goes bankrupt and the club ceases to exist
But the didn't even invest the money in young up and coming superstars that they could sell on for a profit in the future either. They signed old players or average players.I can't understand their logic. Last year, after they did all those levers, they spent 160 mil on new players plus they signed couple of expensive free agents.
When you don't have money then you save money, not spending something which you don't have. Right?
Oh yes....that day would be glorious.
In today's world though I can't see Frenkie being worth less than the 70+ we dropped on Hojlund?
But yeah ....one can dream I guess.
Can't they just sell their tv rights for the 2045 season onwards?
menos que un club
I wonder what happened to that guy FCBarca or FCB from la Cote, Suisse. Wrote every name he could in the original language (it would be like me calling Belgrade Beograd on this forum) and had a remarkable aura of smugness.
Seems to have stopped frequenting the Caf when things went tits up for them though.
I’m here for this……Muppets Unite!?!
Robbing Peter to pay Paul again. Good luck!
Is that a limited agreement? E.g. for 10 years or so? Because €180m really doesn't seem like much.
For "Barca Studios"? What even is that to be worth 360 mil?
Basically just the arm of Barcelona that produces all their internal digital content.
As far as I know it's not profitable. Probably quite a lot of potential in these parts of the bigger clubs moving forward when the classic style of broadcasting contract starts to evolve.
It produces all their audio visual and digital content. Primarily for local tv and their social media platforms, but it was created as a vehicle to uncover new revenue streams through new mediums and in existing and emerging markets. It’s really a okay on the future evolution of content delivery, such as mobile streaming. While not currently profitable, most clubs estimate that the digital content sector will ultimately become one of their most important revenue streams in the medium to long term future.
Last year Barca sold a 49.5% stake in Barca studios to two companies. However the companies didn’t deposit their first 30m euro payment in time to make a difference on this years accounts, so they have been forced to sell more. This has partly been done by having the two companies which bought their stakes return the 16% that the 30m represented. This was supposed to go to a German firm who would deposit the 30m immediately, but it seems that deal fell through, and now Laporta has sold a further 49% stake for 180m which presumably includes the 16% returned. This seems to indicate that Barca have now sold 82.5% of Barca studios for a combined fee of 350m euros - or 301m GBP - and retain a 17.5% stake in it themselves.
That’s my rudimentary understanding of it.
From a current revenue standpoint they aren’t missing out on anything, as it wasn’t profitable. They are just getting extra money into the coffers to fill their haemorrhaging accounts temporarily. But if digital content proved to be as big as many are forecasting, and Barca themselves anticipated, then the opportunity cost of taking this money now - versus the long term gains - will be huge. In short, they are selling off a potentially significant revenue stream, forever, in order to make ends meet today. The problem of course is that Barca presidents are term presidents. They do what is best for the assessment of their performance, and to put it bluntly….their popularity….., today, and they have little to no incentive to make financially or strategically sound decisions that will bear fruit in the long term. It’s a fatal and cyclical short termism built into the DNA of how the organisation is run.
Up until recently they have largely been able to get away with how they’ve done things, because the Spanish and Catalan states have been complicit in their governance and lack of accountability. Economic conditions in both have slowly necessitated a change in approach to these big football institutions, and I suspect their involvement in the ESL has also brought to the forefront UEFA’s gradual determination to close all the loop holes in financial reporting and subsidies that they’ve benefited from for the best part of fifty plus years. The more accountable to the rules they are held and the less complicit the Spanish and Catalan governments are willing to be, the worse the situation will get for Barca. Their “get out of jail free” cards are expiring.
You can put this in stark contrast to Real. They have historically benefited from the same fundamentally corrupt government regulation and subsidies as Barca, but due to Perez effectively being a lifetime president, they have naturally focused resources towards making more sound long term financial and strategic decisions. If they’d had the same merry go round of presidents the last 20 odd years, I’d fully expect them to be in as much of a mess as Barca at this point.
Where this divergent thinking is most evident is to look at what happened last summer. Perez was able to invest heavily in players that he thought would carry the club forward over the next decade, and to do so from a fairly sound financial position. Barca meanwhile were selling their arses to the highest bidders and auctioning off the family silver, in order to bring in players that served a purpose for the next 1-3 seasons, but be damned where they are in 5+ years, because that’s more than likely the next President’s problem to deal with. Just look at the Messi debacle. Could, and should, have sold him for 100m+, maybe even 150m+, but there are elections to worry about, and no one wants to be the president that sells Messi. So he stayed, even though it was clear the club desperately needed the money, couldn’t afford to pay him, and they’d likely lose him on a free.
All in all it’s a horrific shambles. A case study in how NOT to run a large organisation.
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Beautifully written. In many ways Barca are now paying the price of the same democratic process that has long defined them. The same people (socios) that were the driving force towards progress and accountability are now the tool that is short circuiting any chance of longterm planning/success. Whereas on the other hand Madrid, who like you said have probably benefited from similar stuff over the years (some would argue even more early on), evolve unscathed thanks to the semi monarch at their helm in Florentino Perez. How ironic.
Laporta doesn't have the rights to sell more shares than the socios allowed him to last summer and they only voted for 49,9%. It means we're still taking about the original 49,9% here. The club belongs to 100% to its members. Every big decision has to go through a vote during a socio's meeting. In some parts of the world, fans are used to the whims of their owner maybe, but in Barcelona Laporta still needs to follow the rules.
That said, the choice to pick those 2 companies who didn't pay up doesn't look good again. But I don't have any inside knowledge in the investement world to know if this a common thing or not. If the new reports are true, nothing changed but the owner of the shares and barca can register every player.
Getting €180m for a 49,9% share of a branch, that wasn't even profitable so far doesn't look like a bad thing. Especially if the investor brings in knowledge to grow that branch, because he wants to make more money. But that's a bet on the future.
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What is happening with the referee bribes. For me that is a bigger scandal than even City's financial crimes.
So they have effectively torn up the sale from last year? Have they already received any money for that? If so your claim regarding the 49.9% doesn't look correct?
Also, if they have torn up the sale from last year surely that means they effectively received no money and would there have a rather large hole meaning they weren't compliant with FFP, with all the associated ramifications/penalties to follow?
Just a matter of time before this house of cards collapse.
All I said is, we're still talking about the original 49,9% shares the socios allowed Laporta to sell, not additional ones.
Both companies made a down payment of €10m each, but they failed to pay the first of three installments (€30m each). Now we need to wait for an official statement on how exactly they will handle the new sale and distribute the shares.
Barsa fans keep on crucifying Bartomeu for his bad management. I expect we will hear something similar on Laporta in a couple of years when a big share of the club is sold by the creditors to the largest bidder. Unless of course the Catalan government manages to save their blushes. They will never allow Barcelona to go down for political reasons.