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Barcelona Setting Fire to Their Future


Ne Moe Imya
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Thought we had a thread on this but I don't see it.

 

What is Laporte doing over at Barca? Football has seen a lot of short-termism and bad decision-making, but he's got it going on at an epic scale over there this summer.

 

Trying to drive one of their best young players, Frenkie De Jong, out of the club, even going so far as to ask him to not take his deferred salary (a move he agreed to in order to help them get their books through La Liga's financial regulations last year). And all the while, buying players like the 34-year old Lewandowski and Raphinha, who are ... good, but hardly going to be superstars in the medium- or longer-term?

 

And even all of this is nothing compared to the salary situation. They have huge debts, negative working capital and now have sold off a significant portion of their future TV income to get enough money to ... get Kessie and Christensen on the books without running afoul of La Liga's finance requirements?

 

Utterly bizarre. I'm not saying I buy the "Barca are going bust in 3 years" panic-mongers on Twitter, but they are certainly making some decisions that might be OK in the very short term but are going to come back to bite them hard within 5 years or so.

 

Really hoping De Jong just tells them "no" when they ask him again to move to United without receiving his deferred wages. Now that they've put pen to paper with Lewandowski they absolutely have to have that deal go through in order to get through La Liga's process this summer. If United were to call them and say "now we want to pay 10m less" they'd basically have to just take it - they'll be that desperate. Otherwise there is no way they'll be able to register some of the players they've just purchased, they've put themselves in a position where they have basically zero leverage over the situation and everyone knows it.

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De Jong is probably just surplus to requirements due to the rise of both Gavi and Pedri, and they’ve replaced his role in the squad with Kessie on a free, who I assume will be on significantly lower salary. They’ll get decent cash for him too I’d imagine 

 

Pique, Lenglet and Umtiti won’t be in the first team picture next season for one reason or another and Christensen is a decent enough player to come in and strengthen their options there, again on a free.


Lewandowski pursuit is the only one that strikes me as odd given they’ve Aubameyang already.

 

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They could have won the PR battle stating up front that they were going to right the wrong of years of mismanagement by taking the club back to it's roots.

 

They could have built the club around a core of Araujo, de Jong, Gavi, Pedri and Ansu Fati supplemented by the best of what's left at La Masia and a few smart signings and jettisoned as many high earning under performing players as possible even if they had to take a loss on a few of them. There's a wealth of young talent throughout Spain they could have tapped into as well.

 

It's one of the downfalls of the member structure that populism often wins out over smart business decisions.

 

 

 

 

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29 minutes ago, TD_LFC said:

They could have won the PR battle stating up front that they were going to right the wrong of years of mismanagement by taking the club back to it's roots.

 

They could have built the club around a core of Araujo, de Jong, Gavi, Pedri and Ansu Fati supplemented by the best of what's left at La Masia and a few smart signings and jettisoned as many high earning under performing players as possible even if they had to take a loss on a few of them. There's a wealth of young talent throughout Spain they could have tapped into as well.

 

It's one of the downfalls of the member structure that populism often wins out over smart business decisions.

 

 

 

 

Laporte dealt with it much better last time he was in this position. I don't really understand why he's behaving like he is unless their financial position is healthier than appears or at least some of the incoming sponsorship money is dependent on generating internet and social media shit, so they're trying to keep things ticking like Man United have done in recent times. 

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14 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

Laporte dealt with it much better last time he was in this position. I don't really understand why he's behaving like he is unless their financial position is healthier than appears or at least some of the incoming sponsorship money is dependent on generating internet and social media shit, so they're trying to keep things ticking like Man United have done in recent times. 

I think the perception is he dealt with it better and the performances on the pitch definitely suggests he did.

 

I think all the subsequent investigations into various board members and the tussle between Laporte and Rosell hints that not everything was above board.

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7 hours ago, aRdja said:

De Jong is probably just surplus to requirements due to the rise of both Gavi and Pedri, and they’ve replaced his role in the squad with Kessie on a free, who I assume will be on significantly lower salary. They’ll get decent cash for him too I’d imagine 

 

Maybe. But de Jong will demand the deferred salary - and quite right too. 
He’ll want some sort of pay off, and again that’s fair enough as he’s being forced out against his will. 
And whilst everyone knows Barcelona are desperate to sell, there doesn’t seem to be a stampede of clubs trying to sign him. 
The numbers don’t seem to be easily/reliably available, but they’d clearly need United to pay a fair whack just to break even on the deal. 

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22 minutes ago, Ron B said:

Maybe. But de Jong will demand the deferred salary - and quite right too. 
He’ll want some sort of pay off, and again that’s fair enough as he’s being forced out against his will. 
And whilst everyone knows Barcelona are desperate to sell, there doesn’t seem to be a stampede of clubs trying to sign him. 
The numbers don’t seem to be easily/reliably available, but they’d clearly need United to pay a fair whack just to break even on the deal. 

I would like to see De Jong dig his heels in. For one because they are complete utter tossers for doing what they are doing but on a more selfish level, an article by Side Lowe today reckons that if he doesn't go they will have to do something more drastic.

Supposedly we really like Gavi and as yet he hasn't signed that new contract has he? Could be something that develops.

Plus, if rumours are true, Barca need this to buy Silva and City will use that money for Bellingham.

 

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7 hours ago, Tony Moanero said:

Bollocks to Barcelona.

Tony knows.

 

Here's an article by Wallace on them while also having a go at the ESL yet again.

 

The giant debt-zombie that is Barcelona lumbers onwards, mortgaging the future for the sake of the present, embarking on another summer of acquisitions of players it cannot truly afford, trying to survive long enough for the shape of the European game to perhaps change around it.

 

The sale of as much as 25 per cent of the club’s future television rights revenues for the next 20 years in return for up-front cash is connected to the arguments made in a courtroom in Luxembourg this week over the future of European football.

 

The signing of Raphinha from Leeds United, the two-year extension to the contract of Ousmane Dembele, the potential deal to sign Robert Lewandowski – all part of a high-risk position that is based largely on a punt on long-term change in football.

 

It is a major gamble for Barcelona and, to an extent, its president Joan Laporta, although he will likely be long gone if it all fails. Can they win the legal battle of the European Super League (ESL) in time to save themselves?

 

In the European Court of Justice this week, counsel for A22, the Spanish-registered company created as the legal entity for the once-doomed ESL, argued that Uefa’s monopoly on organising club competitions was illegal under European law. The EU’s Advocate-General will offer his advice on the merits of the case on December 15 and the judges will adopt a decision in the early part of next year. The proviso being that, in all but a few cases, the judges go with the recommendation.

 

If Uefa loses its exclusive right to organise competitions, “an iron fist” as the ESL’s counsel Miguel Odriozola described it, then the conversation as to how football will be remodelled by its most powerful clubs is once more open. For the rebel ESL three, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus, no longer the fear of what Odriozola called “the desert voyage” – the financial death sentence of Champions League expulsion by Uefa. Instead the chance to take control of Champions League revenues or those of a new competition and, for Barcelona, a way out of a debt that could now be in excess of €1.5 billion.

 

A decision against Uefa would also uphold the ESL contract that the six Premier League rebels signed last year, with punitive penalties for withdrawal. Will they be obliged to pay up? Certainly, a liability of that size would be of interest to the creditors of the rebel ESL three to whom it would effectively be owed.

 

A new Super League will not generate fresh broadcast rights revenue around the world, it will simply cannibalise the rest. But for Barcelona, and Real Madrid, that has always been the plan. They have exhausted the revenue of their own leagues, and even the Uefa distribution model that rewards big clubs and historic performance is not enough for them. Their goal remains a competition they control, and the ECJ’s decision next year will be critical to that.

 

In the meantime, Barcelona are on life support. The sale of Frenkie de Jong to Manchester United, should it come to that, would provide only temporary respite. Barcelona sold 10 per cent of 20 years of future Liga rights to the bank Sixth Street, itself an ESL investor, for €207.5 million. Under Spanish accountancy law Barcelona can book that as revenue and will likely do so in order to declare a small profit in October’s financial results. The tax authorities, however, will see it for what it is: more debt.

 

Another 15 per cent of Barcelona’s future rights revenue is also to be sold to generate a further €300 million. All requires the approval of Goldman Sachs, which is the club’s biggest institutional creditor.

 

Lending for the rebuilding of Camp Nou and the debt refinancing last year puts the loans to the American investment bank alone at anywhere between €1.5 billion and €2 billion. For their part, Real Madrid have sold 30 per cent of 20 years of future stadium revenue to Sixth Street.

 

Real’s debt is still in excess of £1 billion when the liability for their stadium rebuild is considered. The problem is greater at Barcelona where the hole was dug by the previous president Josep Maria Bartomeu. With his sale of tomorrow to fund today, Laporta has done nothing more than continue to burrow.

 

Florentino Perez, the Real president, and his Liga counterpart Javier Tebas, cannot agree on much. But both will know that the league needs Barcelona to be strong for everyone to thrive and so the club is permitted to stagger on, booking loans as revenue, and somehow still compliant with financial fair play. 

 

Spain’s big two, as well as the rest, have staked the house on a continued rise in value of broadcast rights. Nothing will threaten that as much as a Real Madrid title procession every season.

Barcelona have pulled two of the levers available to finance themselves now. The third is the sale of 49 per cent of their merchandising operation. Can the club afford to commit so much future revenue to creditors? Can it afford not to? The club needs the funds to keep it competitive now.

 

For all the public disapproval, the Super League rebel three, along with A22, and the Spanish-based financiers Anas Laghrari and John Hahn, have committed to the legal battle to defeat Uefa. They seek to liberate, as they see it, the wealthiest clubs to create their own competition. They will soon announce a spokesperson to speak on behalf of the project they are creating. With each step the defeated husk of the Super League of April 2021 is being patched up, refined and adapted to clamber out the vault once more. 

 

The ESL is far from over. Next time there will be, the ESL says, no permanent members. The aim for the rebel three is to cast off the Uefa monopoly, as they see it, and one day create the competition that will earn them the share of the revenue they think they deserve. The decision is coming next year and none need a result more than Barcelona, where the future is being sold.

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2022/07/16/debt-zombie-barcelona-can-saved-european-super-league/

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Didn't a “totally independent" business in Dubai buy over a billion of their debt recently I'm sure I heard that somewhere. The friendly they are playing against City after the premier League starts is just a coincidence and I'm sure has nothing to do with that deal.

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9 minutes ago, magicrat said:

I'm surprised clubs want to sell to them as good chance they will default on any fees that are not up-front. The mess it will create if they do default is not a distraction anyone would want.  Fuck them 

Clubs just seem to bow down to them.

 

 

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