Barcelona have been tight up against the salary limit for the last year, ever since they spent big in the summer of the economic levers. The Blaugrana have managed to bring in Ilkay Gundogan, Oriol Romeu, Vitor Roque, Joao Felix and Joao Cancelo, but have been hanging on for payment of their most recent Barca Vision sale from Libero.
The non-payment of €40m from investment fund Libero could cost President Joan Laporta his bank guarantee at the end of the season. Barcelona are desperately searching for alternatives to try and get that investment. Yet the bigger issues could come this summer.
Relevo report that the intitial sale of Barca Studios, carried out to cover a €200m hole in the accounts, was deliberately done to kick the can down the road. While Orpheus Media and Socios did pay an initial €40m for the first season of 49% of Barca Vision, Barcelona’s plan was always to sell off the remaining percentages to other companies. So far it is unclear where that investment is coming from.
Ultimately, their report concludes that Barcelona must find €160m by the end of June, coinciding with the unpaid Libero money, and the second round of payments from Orpheus and Socios.
It is not explained how that adds up, as Barcelona have received €40m from the initial sale, plus €20m from NIPA in this past summer’s sale if reports are to be believed, taking the total to €60m. Given the original sale figure was some €200m, then it would follow that it is €140m that Barcelona need to square their accounts, but Relevo do not mention the NIPA money.
Nevertheless, this is still a huge hole in the budgets, and if Barcelona cannot find that money, not only willl Laporta have to go back to the members to approve a budget with hundreds of millions of losses, but also Barcelona will likely have to sell their best players in order to register much of their squad next season.
