Unless the employer officially communicates its interpretation of the three levers announced so far, everything points to the fact that the verdict will not be favorable and that more actions will be needed to fit everything. In other words, the fourth lever will be inevitable if there is no big exit or pay cut in the coming days. But even with this new asset sale (an additional 25% of Barça Studios) it might not be enough.
In fact, Barça’s executive president himself, Joan Laporta, admitted yesterday at the press conference to introduce Robert Lewandowski that the board has already approved the fourth lever, which caused raised eyebrows among executives and leaders in favor of leaving a margin cautious before activating it. Implicitly, Laporta took it for granted: “The club has entered 868 million in the last two months. We have a healthy balance sheet, we have made a great effort and I am very happy”. A few minutes later, the club hastened to clarify that it had been “a lapse” and that the figure entered is 768 million, which would rise by a hundred million more with the fourth lever – and in principle, the last one – of this summer .
The figure in question mentioned by Laporta, the 868 million, includes the two sales of television rights to Sixth Street (10% and 15%), the first package of Barça Studios to Socios.com (24.5%) and also a second quarter of the audiovisual production company by virtue of an operation that is not 100% closed, that has not been announced and that some voices at the Camp Nou would have preferred to keep frozen, waiting for exits or salary reductions to occur.
Communicating vessels
Laporta pulls for the right, aware that the League will most likely not recognize all his income when recalculating the salary limit. Meanwhile, in the sports area they fear that even a fourth sale of assets will not be enough to register the seven cards before Rayo. “The levers and the outlets are communicating vessels. Depending on the amount that they recognize from the levers, more or less large sales and/or reductions will be needed”, they illustrate. The puzzle is served.
