Interesting to see if Monchi can get Sevilla challenging while he rebuilds the side.
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Interesting to see if Monchi can get Sevilla challenging while he rebuilds the side.
Fucking hell, I’ve never seen anything like this in all my years watching football - not at the very top level of the game at least. Someone stop this madness. They will implode and put several players’ careers in limbo and maybe even do long-term damage to football.
How have they funded those deals?The beginning of their demise, the start of our rise
Swiss Ramble did a very long and detailed thread on this. The start of the thread can be found here. Below are some extracts:
I've not run the numbers on these deals, partly because I don't know how much they're worth, but leaving aside the economics I think what Barca have done is quite clever from an accounting perspective.That makes their situation, and transfers, a lot more comprehensible. Cheers Binny !
However it is clearly a case of “short-term gain, long-term pain" as mentioned. Selling 10% of their La Liga TV rights (excluding Champions League) for €207.5m to US investment firm Sixth Street for 25 years. Based on current €166m revenue, that would mean annual payment of €16.6m, so total payment of €414m, and selling 49.9% of BLM (if it comes to pass) is insanity in terms of lost future revenue.
The TV rights deal especially. That could easily add up to handing over €1B, to 6th Street, with inflation taken into account.
Maybe @Beamrider has some comments to make?
Awesome. Thanks for that mate. That makes it a whole lot clearer - at least in terms of what potentially could happen on the basis of these family silver sales.I've not run the numbers on these deals, partly because I don't know how much they're worth, but leaving aside the economics I think what Barca have done is quite clever from an accounting perspective.
Beforehand, they had a ton of debt on their balance sheet and in their last published accounts they paid over €40m in interest. Obviously they will also, at some point, need to repay the balance of the debt (or else they will need to refinance it) because it will fall due for payment.
What they have done by "selling" a share of their future media income is essentially to replace (some of) their existing debt balances with a longer term agreement. What I'm not clear on is how that transaction will be accounted for. But I think they way they have structured it, it could be treated as creating a one-off profit up-front, whilst reducing future revenues from media (so it wouldn't be treated as a new debt balance). So if they use some of the proceeds to repay their debt, their balance sheet will look a lot healthier and the up-front gain can potentially give them some shelter against failing FFP (at least the UEFA definition, as I don't really understand how the Spanish rules work). I stress "if" because this is Barca we're talking about.
Obviously the deal will impact their future spending, but the kind of numbers that Swiss Ramble mentions are not that significant in the grand scheme of things. They are "selling the family silver", but only a proportion of it, and there's a good chance they'll push for a structure for a future European Super League that protects them against that cost (either by carving it out of what they pay to Sixth Street, or by insisting they're paid a premium to join the ESL that will cover that cost). So there's the irresponsibility element we have come to expect from them - they're likely still gambling on a future ESL to make things better for them.
In the Premier League, there are a lot of clubs who have borrowed against their future media revenue, and these transactions are treated as loans (basically the corporate equivalent of a payday loan). What Barca are doing looks different. On the face of it, it looks like a clever solution, but the fact that they've then gone out and spent money left right and centre shows that they still haven't learned their lesson and I suspect they'll find a way of digging themselves back into a hole some time soon.
Looks like they are still going on
I hope he fucks off - he's a very important player to them.
Cf. UnitedBarcelona hire a Dutch coach: “let’s buy every Dutch player available.” Barcelona hire a Spaniard: “sell all these useless Dutch bastards.” Real Madrid went through a similar phase a few years back (even with a non-Dutch coach). Funny how that works.
It's not the first time for Barca. They did it with Van Gaal too, like 20 years ago. He basically brought his old Ajax team to BarcaBarcelona hire a Dutch coach: “let’s buy every Dutch player available.” Barcelona hire a Spaniard: “sell all these useless Dutch bastards.” Real Madrid went through a similar phase a few years back (even with a non-Dutch coach). Funny how that works.
It's not the first time for Barca. They did it with Van Gaal too, like 20 years ago. He basically brought his old Ajax team to Barca
Your wish is my command (in lieu of 737Max)@737Max, would you please post this?