Hello good people, trust all’s well with you.
Gonna kick off today by answering (in as simple way as possible, because that’s my level of understanding) why Barcelona, the world’s most debt-ridden club, are buying top end players left, right and centre regardless of Financial Fair Play regulations.
Ok, here goes. When I first started working, after a few months I went mental, I bought a whole lot of stuff on credit. So much so that the monthly repayments ate up most of my salary.
However (it was a sales job), my plan was to rapidly increase my commission, offsetting the pain of working for next to nothing. In reality, I was simply spending money I didn’t have and hadn’t earned yet.
It took years to break even and slowed down my ability to find financial stability. Right, so in a nutshell the Spanish giants are doing the same. They are selling off future assets - 10 percent of their TV rights for the next 25 years ($207m) 49.9 percent of their licensing/marketing division (undisclosed) and naming rights (the stadium will be called ‘Spotify Camp Nou’) in a sponsorship deal with the digital giant ($300,).
This means that the upfront payments cover the incoming purchases with regards to keeping the books straight.
However, they’re still reportedly just south of $1.4b in debt! They owe clubs and players all over the world 10’s of millions, they really aren’t in a good space.
It’s a massive gamble that could backfire in the most devastating way, unless they regain superiority in Europe. And that’s far from guaranteed, despite the likes of Robert Lewondowski and Raphinha joining the ranks.
It’s a highly unusual strategy for such a massive club. I have a friend in Barcelona, Javier, lifelong season-ticket holder…
We’ve had a bit of banter recently over the hijacking of Chelsea transfers by his club, but during a serious chat, he spoke about the dismay of many supporters in the manner in which their club was being managed.
Interestingly, the Catalan giants are owned by its registered members and supporters and do not follow the private model of ownership as clubs in the Premier League do. They elect a president and board and fire them when things aren’t going well. On paper this appears to be a solid democratic model, however look where the club is today, embarrassed by competing in Thursday night Europa obscurity and tucked away deeply in the shadow of archrivals and European Champions Real Madrid.
It’s hard to see a way back for Barcelona even if they start reproducing the kind of football we all became accustomed to. The huge debt will take its toll and there’s only so many future assets that can be sold off, I’d predict, much like the recent sale of Chelsea, that Barca will be sold in the next few years.
Anyway, who gives a sh!t about Spanish football? It’s 10 days and it’s back to the Premier League and something extra to look forward to on the weekends!
Judging on pre-season results Man United or Arsenal should be killing it this year… bye byeee.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za