FC Barcelona is at a shortfall of 35 million euros, according to the new salary limits set by La Liga. Joan Laporta's board is working to reverse this situation, caused, to a large extent, by the early elimination in the Champions League. Going out in the group stages meant that Barca are 26 million below the budgeted income for the financial year. According to the new regulations on economic control, not all levers are permissible. The levers that generate extraordinary income with the sale of assets that are already profitable can no longer be used to increase the salary margin. However, Barcelona can generate fair-play through activating levers on club departments running on a loss.
Barça is studying this possibility. According to Spanish jounrnalist Victor Malo, Barca are considering a partial sale of Barca TV.
Barça TV, the official television of the club, managed by Telefonica, is currently running in the red. If Barça manage to sell it and generate a profit with the operation, that money would count towards an increase in Barca's fair-play margin.
Selling a loss-making asset gives Fair Play
What La Liga doesn't allow according to new regulations is the sale of assets already generating income for new player signings. An example that won't work this time around is the television rights that were sold in the summer to Sixth Street.
The anticipated income through television rights is 518.75 million euros, but in the long term, Barca will forego around 41.5 million per year. In 25 years that's a whopping 1,037.5 billion euros. If Barça repeated a similar operation, it wouldn't count towards fair-play. On the other hand, selling a loss-making entity like Barça TV is allowed.
It is a complex operation. It's not easy to find investors for a business model that isn't working.
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Jaume Roures |
Barça TV is not for sale, but the media mogul behind Joan Laporta's election campaign, Jaume Roures is on the lookout. Roures recently acquired 24.5% of Barca Studios. President Laporta, however has denied any plans of a sale of Barca TV.
Barcelona do plan to revitalize Barca TV into a profit making business. Firstly, the problems with Telefónica that have led to a workers' strike must be resolved. From there, the club will have to decide if it later grants the partial sale of Barça TV to another company, as happened back in the day with Mediapro.
There are other ways to help the salary cap
Barca's current wages are 656 million and they have to be reduced to 621 million. The departure of Gerard Piqué releases only five million euros, and the new agreement with Whitebit is worth 12 million euros, which also adds a fair-play margin of five million. Barca plan another cut of around 8 million which still causes a shortfall of around 17 million.
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