Upon arrival of the meeting of the board of directors last Tuesday in La Jonquera (Girona), the Barcelona president Joan Laporta summoned the coach, Xavi Hernández, to a meeting at the Camp Nou together with the executive leadership, a meeting in which coach was informed of the existing economic parameters to design the squad for next season.
As EFE was able to learn, the Barça coach made a proposal for maximums and another for minimums; and he informed the management team of the meetings that he has held in recent days with various players that he does not count on for next year.
And it is that Barcelona is clear that it is necessary to lower the wage bill to undertake hiring and adapt to financial ‘fair play’, the headache that it has after the economic losses accumulated in recent courses and that are a burden that they have forced to sell part of its assets.
Xavi, who has already met with a number of players, will continue to inform players who have no place in his project in the coming days. The great battle horse will be the financing of the new project.
In fact, as soon as they arrived from La Jonquera, where the board called an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting (June 16) to request authorization to undertake different economic actions that help close the current financial year before the 30th and reinforce the workforce for the next season 2022-2023, Laporta met with Xavi to streamline processes.
The different proposals could represent up to 740 million euros, according to different estimates, and involve the sale of 49.9% of Barça Licensing&Merchandising, SL: (BML), the company that manages the stores, and up to 25% of the rights of TV.
In the first case, Barça could obtain about 200 million euros for half of BLM, the difference is in the second case, which could bring them 540 million euros.
The transfer of the sale of 25% of the television rights could take place, according to the club, “to one or more investors” and it seems that the agreement with the British investment fund CVC, which would mean allying with LaLiga, is not the only one that Barcelona has on the table. “More options are handled and there is no priority,” sources close to the negotiation assure EFE.
Embracing the agreement with CVC could mean that the 540 million will be computed as income and not as debt, if another actor, such as Goldman Sachs, is also involved in the operation, as well as allocating more than 40 million to lighten the salary limit of the staff and undertake the already agreed signings of Christensen (Chelsea) and Kessié (Milan).
In any case, in the Camp Nou offices they are still attentive to the market and the accounts. In fact, the club has an ace in the chamber, since it could activate a third income lever, the sale of 49% of Barça Studios, a sale already approved by the assembly and that could provide it with more economic muscle.
