A Joan Laporta he loves to walk along the cornice, hurrying until the last day to achieve the goals he sets for himself. In his Barça, which he has chaired since March 7, he lives to the limit, practically from day one.
His directive had time to close the agreement with Sixth Street, the US investment fund, which will allow it to overcome, with an injection of more than 20 million for 10% of television rights over the next 25 years, the obstacle of red numbers at the end of the financial year corresponding to the 21- 22.
Until the last day of the term Laporta endures to seal that contract, whose negotiations began “two weeks ago”, according to the version he gave Victor Fontthe candidate who came second in the last elections.
Some conversations with Sixth Street, which already has an agreement with Madrid, but in this case it is different because it has paid 360 million to obtain 30% of the commercial management of the new Bernabéu in exchange.
The president needs to sell 10% of the television rights for more than 200 million euros so as not to end the 21-22 financial year with losses
At Barça, it is a financial operation to avoid a third consecutive season with losses. The board needs liquid money to cover the huge hole that has shaken the club’s cash and Sixth Street offers it just in time. Almost with the bell about to ring, but it should arrive to stop the bleeding and be a relief.
Without alleviating fair play
This injection of the North American fund does not alleviate, however, the salary fair play, but it will have, if it ends up being signed, even on the last day, an impact to change the red numbers for the green ones. And it would be, at the same time, the first step to mitigate the negative net worth, greater than 500 million euros, which strangles the life of the club.
Laporta would have left in the month of July that starts other alternative ways to be able to balance the accounts. The first would also be the sale of the remaining 15%, which could be done in pieces and in two different operations, with the aim of raising at least another 300 million more. The second way would be the sale of 49.9% of BLM, the company that manages Barça’s merchandising.
Guarantees, Griezmann, Auba…
Laporta received the majority endorsement of the assembly (he obtained 84% of the votes) for that sale of assets on June 16. Since then, talks with several investment funds have intensified, once the CVC option has been totally ruled out as Javier Tebas, the president of LaLiga, intended.
And true to his tradition of solving problems at the last breath, as he has been doing at the beginning of his second term, the president is running out of time. No, it is not an exaggeration. It already happened, for example, when he had to collect the guarantee of 124 million euros to be able to take office. He did it after two in the morning.
The guarantees, the departure of Griezmann, the transfer of Luuk de Jong, the signing of Auba…. Everything happened in the last breath
Something similar happened last summer market when Griezmann’s departure ended (it was at 11:59 p.m., one minute before the time limit), coinciding with the arrival of Luuk de Jong on loan from Sevilla. The same procedure was repeated at the close of the winter market to seal the signing of Aubameyang, also on the last day.
Xavi’s concern
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And in this situation, Laporta finds himself once again, accustomed as he always is to surfing those anguished moments where the clock runs faster than ever against his interests. But in those three scenarios (endorsements, Griezmann and Auba) he has gotten away with it, no matter how much pressure he faces.
Xavi, on the other hand, doesn’t feel as comfortable as the president because the calendar is upon him and everything remains the same in the locker room. Without the signings arriving, especially Lewandowski, who has requested and without executing the liquidation that he needs to regenerate, and really, Barça.