2 years ago
How FC Barcelona Has Been Able To Make Big Money Signings Despite Being In Huge Debt
According to Fabrizio Romano, FC Barcelona has reached an agreement with FC Sevilla to sign Jules Kounde. The center defender who turned down Chelsea to join the Catalan giants reached personal terms with FC Barcelona a few weeks ago and was waiting for both sides to agree on a cost.With the signing of Jules Kounde, FC Barcelona's Sporting Director and President, Mateu Alemany and Joan Laporta, have completed five signings in the current transfer window and are still looking for more. In addition, the team has made three more additions than major rival Real Madrid.
It appears pretty crazy that a club with over a billion Euros in debt and still dominating the list of clubs with the biggest debts in 2022 has managed to make huge moves in the transfer window.To re-establish itself, the club paid €50 million to FC Bayern Munich for 34-year-old Robert Lewandowski, then grabbed Franck Kessie for free from AC Milan after he won the Serie A title with them. Raphinha was bought from Leeds United for a reputed €60 million fee, and Andreas Christensen was signed from Chelsea. According to several sources, the Jules Kounde deal will cost between €60 and €65 million, plus guaranteed add-ons.
To make matters worse, the club still owes Frenkie de Jong €17 million in deferred pay and Gerard Pique €80 million, both of which are due in around two years.With all of these postponed wages and debts trailing the club, how are they still able to sign and even kidnap players during the current transfer window?
The reason is simple: the club used their first and second economic levers, with their sights set on the third, to register their new recruits.
To explain, the club sells their assets for a few million dollars in order to settle with the clubs with which they did business for a certain player.A few days ago, the club sold 15% of their TV rights to the Sixth Streets Company for €400 million in order to raise finances to recruit Robert Lewandowski, renew Ousmane Dembele's contract, sign Raphina, and beat Chelsea to sign Jules Kounde.
In total, the club has now sold 25% of their rights to this investment fund and will only be able to reclaim these rights in the following 25 years, or sooner if the money is available.In any case, the club will be unable to register their new signings unless Frenkie de Jong agrees to either take a pay cut and stay at FC Barcelona or forfeit the €17 million owed to him and leave for Manchester United, which means that FC Barcelona's ability to register all of these new signings is dependent on Frenkie de Jong, one of the club's highest earners.
In a nutshell, the team hopes to make enough money from potential future trophies, commission from jersey sales, and other UEFA levies.Hopefully, the club can come up with some commercial ideas and avoid going bankrupt in the next years due to foolish expenditure and poor administration.
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