Barcelona announce second economic lever to boost transfer hopes
Robin Bairner
- Updated: 22 Jul 2022 10:08 BST
- 3 min read
Barcelona have confirmed that the club has activated its second economic lever, which is set to raise around €315 million that can be reinvested into the team.
Faced with the prospect of a financial catastrophe earlier this year, Barca took the major decision to sell off a portion of their La Liga television revenue for the next 25 years. Investment company Sixth Street purchased 10% of these rights earlier this summer but has now increased that stake to 25%.
In total, the deal is set to bring in €522.5m to Barcelona.
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What the club say
A statement on Barca's official website reads: “FC Barcelona today announced an additional investment from Sixth Street, a strategic investment firm with significant experience in global sports and media, which follows the firm’s previously announced acquisition of 10% of the Club’s LaLiga TV rights.
“With this second transaction, FC Barcelona has sold an additional 15% of the Club’s LaLiga TV rights. In total, Sixth Street will receive 25% of the Club’s LaLiga TV rights for the next 25 years.
“The transaction continues the implementation of a strategy overwhelmingly supported by the Club’s members at its Extraordinary General Assembly in June.
“’We continue to move forward on our strategy and are pleased to have completed this additional agreement with Sixth Street providing us with a meaningful increase in capital strength,’ said Joan Laporta, president of FC Barcelona. ‘Over the past few weeks, we and Sixth Street have engaged and collaborated with a shared understanding of what we are seeking to achieve for our organization, and we look forward to our long-term partnership.’
“’FC Barcelona is one of the world’s premier sporting organizations, and we are glad to be expanding our relationship through this additional investment,’ said Alan Waxman, co-founder and CEO of Sixth Street. ‘Our flexibility and cross-platform expertise continue to be of value to management teams when seeking to execute highly strategic initiatives.”
What this means for Barcelona
This sounds great, but what #FCBarcelona are really doing is selling off some “family silver” to generate short-term profits in order to meet the salary cap, but the price will be future “mortgage” payments (TV rights) or lower revenue (BLM – Barcelona Licensing & Merchandising).
— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) July 18, 2022
In the short term, the levers being activated ensure the economic stability of Barcelona and will allow them to compete at the highest level and make major signings such as Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha. Jules Kounde could perhaps even follow.
Only time will tell how this strategy will pan out in the longer term. Based on current television revenue of €166m per year, the value of the rights that Barcelona have sold over the next 25 years is, therefore, worth over €1bn – twice the amount they have been sold for.
