Barca’s general assembly approves the sale of up to 49.9% of sales and up to 25% of the league’s television rights for a maximum of 25 years without official figures. The entity expects to ingest at least EUR 600 million for both operations

The second telematic assembly in Barca’s history ended in the same manner as the first: Joan Laporta And its board has carte blanche to activate its renowned economic leverage, selling up to 49.9% of BLM, the company that manages Barça Merchandising, and up to 25% of the league’s television rights for a maximum of 25 years. In both cases, blindly, without official figures, but with a declared intention to enter, at least, a total of 600 million euros. An amount that, according to the leader, allows the necessary operations to be performed so that the professional team, especially the first soccer team, can be competitive.

4,478 delegates were called. But, in the end, as always, very few people actually voted. Among them, only a few senators, that is, the oldest fellow, the former president, some members of the commission, the Syndic del Soci and the full board, were present in the room, although they voted electronically. In all, out of 671 active pledges at the time, 568 voted for the BLM sale, 65 voted against it, and 13 voted blank. As for the sale of television rights, meanwhile, of the 586 authorized representatives at the time, 494 voted in favour, 62 voted against and 13 voted vacant.

As explained by the president of Barcelona, ​​an agreement to sell up to 49.9% of BLM’s could mean between 200 and 300 million euros in revenue. Always, with the possibility of controlling potential resale to a third party and retaining the option to repurchase a percentage sold prior to the expiration of its mandate. With regard to the sale of up to 25% of the television rights for a maximum of 25 years, Laporta stated that they intended to receive a minimum of 200 million euros for each 10%. In this case, maintaining control over possible resale. Currently, the club gets 165 million euros per year from the league, and the sale would mean a loss of some 41 million euros, which, he explained, is compensated with the agreement with Spotify. “We know what we’re asking for, but we have it under control,” he reiterated.

attack on Thebes

Laporta, of course, has already left an environment that is perfectly conducive to the approval of these two levers that, according to the current board, require the club to overcome its fragile economic situation and become competitive again. needs to be activated. and he did it with a speech in which the figure of Xavier ThebesLike the famous agreement with the CVC, the chairman of the LFP. “If we continue to lose, our rivals see us as weak. And not only them. Those in power in regulatory bodies obsessively put many obstacles in our way. We will do it ourselves, without any other operation they want us to go through for our supervision and control,” he sentenced.

“rules fair play It goes according to how they direct it at a distance of 600 kilometers from here. Now, we have got a circular with a law, of course anti-Barca, according to which we cannot register a player in youth or assistant and play in the first team, as has always been done. So we have to activate those levers as well,” Laporta complained without naming the affected player, although it was pretty clear he might be talking about former racing player Pablo Torre.

“We need these levers to be able to compete against out-of-state clubs whose money doesn’t come from the football industry. We fight with our assets and our brand. Neither they, with all the money in the world, nor pressures coming from more than 600 kilometers away, who want to prevent us from being a reference again, were able to buy our essays, our history, or our ways. Won’t happen. understanding society, sport and country”, emphasized a Laporta, who, of course, also recalled the terrible economic legacy he received after passing from the club’s leadership to a board led by Josep Maria Bartomeu, which ultimately led to the need to activate These springs were eventually approved by the assembly.