FC Barcelona activate the second lever and are already working towards the activation of the third lever

It's likely that this Wednesday, if nothing goes wrong, Barça will sign the deal for the transfer of 15% of the television rights for 25 years to Sixth Street for an amount between 320 and 330 million euros. On Sunday night, a conclusive meeting took place between representatives of the club and Goldman Sachs, the same investment group that lent 595 million to the club at the beginning of Joan Laporta's tenure, to alleviate their debt.

Goldman Sachs received 90% of the television rights as collateral and was to release the 15% that Barça will cede to Sixth Street. This release will not be in exchange for anything, instead, Barça will have to amortize the part of the 595 million. The amount to be amortized could be around 100 million euros. As such, Barça are now ready to activate the second lever, after having already transferred 10% of the TV rights to the same fund for 207.5 million euros earlier.

With these two operations, Barça will not only have fresh money to sign new players but also to pay off their debt. They might finally manage to relieve themselves of a huge load of negative equity on their stocks, and might also be able to move to the 1-1 rule for registering players in La Liga. It still may not be enough, however. The club may have to reduce their team's wage bills or haggle for more leeway from La Liga to increase their allowed investment in the first team squad. Only then will they be able to make new signings.

Barça can presently invest around 480 million euros in its squad, which the club has already exceeded. One option is to reduce the total, by selling all their discarded players and then some, with Frenkie de Jong being chief on the list since his departure would free up some 40 million euros. Another option would be to increase the amount they can invest in the wage bill of the first team, which can be done by increasing revenues, something the club's financial wing, led by vice-president Eduard Romeu, is already working on. They are already negotiating the activation of a third lever that would allow the registration of all the newly signed players.

The idea in discussion is the sale of 49% of Barça Studios, a line of business that is currently running under loss. Negotiations are already underway to sell the audiovisual production and everything related to the Metaverse and NFT. Barça expects to earn about 200 million euros and, additionally, find a partner who can help make Barça Studios turn profitable, enabling the club to obtain revenue from the 51% shares that will remain.