Barca Fucked?

[bluebell]

[article]
Barcelona financial chief admits €500m needed to 'save' club

By Tom Gott
Jun 9, 2022

Barcelona are in financial trouble / Alex Caparros/GettyImages

Barcelona's vice president for finance has claimed that €500m (£427m) is needed to 'save' the club.
La Blaugrana's financial woes are no secret, with president Joan Laporta speaking at length about just how bad things were when he joined the club in March 2021. It is well known that there is still a lot of work to do to clear the massive debt on the books at Camp Nou.
According to financial chief Eduard Romeu, the amount needed to fix Barcelona's woes sits at a whopping half a billion euros.
“The number doing the most damage is asset imbalance,” Romeu told Sport. “The negative capital of €500m. I said it before, if someone wants give me €500m...that is what we need to save Barca.”
Despite the need for money, Romeu stressed that Barcelona are not interested in La Liga's CVC deal, which would see them pocket a huge sum of money in exchange for a percentage of their audiovisual rights.
“For us, despite all the pressure we have received and the Fair Play issue we always have to keep in mind, it’s a bad deal," Romeu said of the CVC deal.
“From a financial point of view, it’s settled and I think the president has been very clear.”
Instead, Barcelona are planning to raise money by selling shares in their merchandising and audiovisual department, which could raise a cool €400m.
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[Shay_K]

Should we set up a donation thread for them?

 

[737Max]

Does this mean we won't get our £42m from them for Coutinho?

 

[StevieM]

We can chip in £40m for Gavi if they like.

 

[moron]

We can chip in £40m for Gavi if they like.

Excellent plan - we need to do it, and even if they lose some of their best players, they can learn lessons from the English league where former European Champions and CL Contenders have had to drop into the lower leagues to sort themselves out over a few years to a decade and then come back up stronger having learnt their lessons. It's no shame - given our list has included the likes of Man United, Aston Villa, and Nottingham Forest.

 

[ibromurph]

We can chip in £40m for Gavi if they like.

Give them 70m and get Pedri instead.

 

[StevieM]

Give them 70m and get Pedri instead.

Let’s offer them £100m for both and be done with it.

 

[bluebell]

Let’s offer them £100m for both and be done with it.

We know they couldn't afford Adama Troare, which has left the door wide open for us.

 

[Judge Jules]

We can chip in £40m for Gavi if they like.

Bugger that - they still owe us that much for Coutinho. Give us Gavi and we can call it quits.

 

[StevieM]

Bugger that - they still owe us that much for Coutinho. Give us Gavi and we can call it quits.

Have they even paid us for Suarez yet?

 

[RedStar]

If Spurs can carry £1bn debt on their balance sheet and not have any issues than I'm pretty sure Barca will be fine. Fans get all wound up about club debts but that's not really a big issue as long as you have strong revenue streams to service it.

 

[The Nomad]

If Spurs can carry £1bn debt on their balance sheet and not have any issues than I'm pretty sure Barca will be fine. Fans get all wound up about club debts but that's not really a big issue as long as you have strong revenue streams to service it.

However la liga are actually showing some balls about the situation (on the face of it anyway).

The Premier league and FA. Not so much. Unless you actually admit financial difficulty, in which case you will get x point penalty. Depending on the mood.

 

[The Nomad]

If Spurs can carry £1bn debt on their balance sheet and not have any issues than I'm pretty sure Barca will be fine. Fans get all wound up about club debts but that's not really a big issue as long as you have strong revenue streams to service it.

However la liga are actually showing some balls about the situation (on the face of it anyway).

The Premier league and FA. Not so much. Unless you actually admit financial difficulty, in which case you will get x point penalty. Depending on the mood.

 

[Irishanfield]

If Spurs can carry £1bn debt on their balance sheet and not have any issues than I'm pretty sure Barca will be fine. Fans get all wound up about club debts but that's not really a big issue as long as you have strong revenue streams to service it.

Don't think spurs are in the same situation as barca tbh. Barca are struggling to sign anyone even on a free until they get players off the wage bill which is why there is a hold up on the Lewandowski transfer

 

[bluebell]

If Spurs can carry £1bn debt on their balance sheet and not have any issues than I'm pretty sure Barca will be fine. Fans get all wound up about club debts but that's not really a big issue as long as you have strong revenue streams to service it.

Barca are having difficulty paying the loans. They missed two payments already.

 

[Hyena]

Announce Gavi!

 

[Beamrider]

Re Spurs, I've had a quick dig into their accounts. The stadium (and related debt) aren't actually held by the club itself - they have a separate group company which owns the stadium and owes the debt. This is a fairly standard structure (Arsenal did the same when they built the Emirates). It means that if there's a default on the debt, the banks / lenders will take control of the stadium as security (basically the same as the mortgage on your house if you're lucky enough to own it). The company then charges a management fee to Tottenham (which it uses to service the debt).
The earliest maturity date of any of the debt is 2029 (at which point they'll probably re-finance rather than repay, unless they're flush with cash at that point) and the average maturity is 22 years so they're in a very different position to Barcelona - in the short term they're not going to need to stump up a load of cash to repay the debt principal (or need to refinance it), they just need to fund the interest, which they should be able to manage out of the extra revenues from the expanded ground, particularly the hospitality side of things.
Finally, and I only have the 2021 accounts to go on, their interest payments were "only" £18m - which is perfectly manageable for a club their size (and I'm sure the extra ticket and hospitality profit will more than cover it). I'd expect their future interest payments will be higher than that but should still be manageable (worst case, they may have to sell the odd player / rein in their spending to raise the cash.

 

[peterhague]

Yeah I'd day the Spurs and Barca situations are clearly different, really. Spurs have made an expensive but basically affordable investment. They might have to manage their spending for a few years, like Arsenal did, but basically they should be fine.

Barca are genuinely "distressed". They've blown hundreds of millions on bad signings and seem to have completely mismanaged the stadium work (covid hasn't helped, obviously). They're gonna be clearing this shit up for years. It's pretty funny tbf.

 

[Tinto]

Yeah, it’s not looking likely they’ll be competitive in the CL for a while, especially with the way they insist on how football should be played

 

[mwake]

However la liga are actually showing some balls about the situation (on the face of it anyway).

The Premier league and FA. Not so much. Unless you actually admit financial difficulty, in which case you will get x point penalty. Depending on the mood.

Leeds and Burnley are currently testing 'the mood' of the situation...PL and FA will do nothing to Everton though...

 

[bluebell]

Barca's sponsorship deal with Spotify included playing kit, training kit, women's kit and the renaming of the stadium for as little as €65m per season. That's a bargain for Spotify, and reeks of desperation from Barca. The president telling everyone he needs €500m doesn't do them any good either.

 

[dee]

Leeds and Burnley are currently testing 'the mood' of the situation...PL and FA will do nothing to Everton though...

Hmmm Leeds and Burnley ……

Yeah I think Hitler would win popularity contests with those two!

Everton are Goebels … sorry .. safe

 

[doctor_mac]

 

[RedStar]

DeJong refusing to leave because they owe him £17m in unpaid wages

 

[Markeh]

DeJong refusing to leave because they owe him £17m in unpaid wages

i had assumed they’d settle up with him before kicking him out the door. Really hope they go out of business

 

[StevieM]

i had assumed they’d settle up with him before kicking him out the door. Really hope they go out of business

There’s no way Barca go out of business.

I presume the worst case scenario for them is that they lose the “registered association” status and become a Ltd Company, get bought by a single owner, who’ll clear their debts.

More likely they’ll figure out a way of re-structuring their debts over a longer period of time - they’ll just have to copy more of a Liverpool-like transfer strategy rather than the shambles approach they appear to be still trying to employ.

 

[Hyena]

Sadly the continued existence of this sad undeserving club works in our favour, as them falling over the brink would probably mean Kounde, Koulibaly, Raphinha, and Lewandowski playing for our rivals in the PL. De Jong would probably jump at a chance in Chelsea too.

 

[StevieM]

Barca need to keep going until they can afford to pay us the £40m they owe for Countinho.

Then they can die.

 

[RedStar]

There’s no way Barca go out of business.

I presume the worst case scenario for them is that they lose the “registered association” status and become a Ltd Company, get bought by a single owner, who’ll clear their debts.

More likely they’ll figure out a way of re-structuring their debts over a longer period of time - they’ll just have to copy more of a Liverpool-like transfer strategy rather than the shambles approach they appear to be still trying to employ.

Yeah they are too valuable a brand to go out of business. It's incredible how badly run they were for the last 10 years, but their revenue streams are enormous. They will probably have to accept 5-10 years of bread and water before they can start competing again. Unless they get some bananas sponsorship deals or strong inflation just diminishes their debt.

 

[The Nomad]

i had assumed they’d settle up with him before kicking him out the door. Really hope they go out of business

It's probably the reason for the flip flopping of Laporta.

We want to sell you
I'm not leaving until you pay me my back dated money
FDJ is not for sale..

And repeat cycle.