Billions in debt, but still happy on a star shopping spree: FC Barcelona’s behavior is irritating. The football club needs at least 100 million euros to register the newcomers around Robert Lewandowski for play and to comply with league requirements. There is a daring plan for this.
After the commitment of world footballer Robert Lewandowski from FC Bayern and other renowned professionals, FC Barcelona continues to cash in to be able to afford even more reinforcements. According to the Spanish club, it has sold another 15 percent of its television rights for the next 25 years to the investment company Sixth Street. The club now needs at least 100 million euros to register the newcomers for the game and to be able to comply with the requirements of the Spanish professional league, wrote the specialist newspaper “Sport”, citing club circles.
At the end of June, Barça had already assigned ten percent of its TV rights to Sixth Street and secured income of 207.5 million euros. On Friday, the club announced the sale of a further 15 percent. This time, the value of the deal was not disclosed. According to media estimates, however, another 315 million will flow into the coffers of the club, which has debts of 1.35 billion euros.
The controversial sale of club assets was only approved at a general meeting in mid-June. Accordingly, the executive floor around President Joan Laporta can assign a maximum of 25 percent of the TV rights and also sell a minority stake of no more than 49.9 percent in Barca Licensing and Merchandising (BLM). “Sport” wrote, however, that the club would only sell a 20 to 30 percent stake in BLM in order to collect the 100 million euros that were still needed.
For the current US trip of the team with national goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen, Barcelona will receive ten million euros, it said. After the 6-0 win in the first game at Inter Miami, the second test game of the tour and Lewandowski’s debut are on Sunday in Paradise near Las Vegas against Real Madrid.
The Catalans have so far spent more than €100m on Lewandowski and Brazilian Raphinha (Leeds United). Franck Kessié (AC Milan) and Andreas Christensen (Chelsea) came on free transfers. In addition, the contract with former Dortmund professional Ousmane Dembélé, which has already expired, has been extended. According to Catalan media reports, the club are now looking to bring in at least one more centre-back. The favorite is national player Iñigo Martínez from Athletic Bilbao, it was said.
