In an effort to rescue the club from complete financial ruin, FC Barcelona has activated its second ‘economic lever’ of the summer, but what does this mean for the Catalan giants? In short, the Spanish club has sold even more of its future television rights, and this has enabled them to carry on with business as normal during the summer 2022 transfer window.
Levers are measures that have been put into place to help the club reduce its debt, which is reported to be in excess of one billion Euros. Without having activated the financial levers, FC Barcelona wouldn’t have been able to make any new cash signings this year and would have had to rely on free transfers and loan deals.
How much money will Barcelona receive from activating the economic levers?
The second economic lever that was activated by Barcelona was reported to be worth around €400 million, plus there is even talk of them activating a third economic lever in a deal purported to be worth somewhere in the region of €100 million. So, what exactly happened? Football’s most iconic team recently agreed to sell a further 15% of their future television rights to Sixth Street – an American investment company. It’s the second time Barcelona has done this. The first such leverage was activated just a few months earlier when Sixth Street first acquired future TV rights for upcoming Barcelona games.
According to reports, the club has earned approximately €522 million through the sales of television rights. From the latest deal, they pocketed roughly €315 million. When converted into US dollars or Pound Sterling at today’s average exchange rate, it works out to around $322 million or £268 million. What does this mean for Sixth Street? The company will now get a whopping 25% income from anything generated by Barcelona’s TV deals over the next 25 years.
Why has Barcelona needed to activate such measures?
Quite simply put, Barcelona needs to activate these financial measures in an effort to balance their books and free up some cash, or they could potentially fold as a club. Activating the levers has done just that. It has therefore had a major impact on exactly how much the club can spend on new players. La Liga’s governing body also has a cap on how much a team can spend on a player and a cap on player wagers, which has further restricted the club from making potential ‘big-money’ signings.
What’s next for Barcelona?
Online football betting markets for upcoming Barcelona matches will remain unchanged, and it looks as though very little else will change on the surface for the club. For example, the current money woes haven’t yet stopped them from attracting new arrivals. It has enabled them to bring in big players, such as Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich for a reported fee of €45 million and Jules Koundé from Sevilla for around €55m.
The Lewandowski move saw Memphis Depay being stripped of his squad number to make way for the iconic Polish international. Brazilian footballer Raphinha came in from Premier League side Leeds United for an undisclosed fee, and both Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie have come to the club on free transfers. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang arrived on a free transfer back in February 2022 from Arsenal, along with Adama Traoré, who came in on loan from Premier League side Wolves.
Fabio Gomez and Ferran Torres both came to the club for an undisclosed fee, and Pablo Torre arrived from Racing Santander for €5 million. Recently leaving Barcelona either on loan or for a fee were Dani Alves, Phillippe Coutinho, Alex Collado, Iñaki Peña, Rey Manaj, Francisco Trincão, and Moussa Wagué. On the surface, it looks as though the club will continue to function as usual, despite a large dark cloud hanging over its head. The team must win the domestic league and Champions League and look to find more resourceful measures to balance their books and climb their way out of the mounting debt they currently find themselves in.
