Barça's debt stands at 1,000 million despite selling part of the television rights

Barça closed last season with 1,045 million in total debt despite getting rid of 10% of the television rights of the league for 25 years.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
06 October 2022 Thursday 04:31
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Barça's debt stands at 1,000 million despite selling part of the television rights

Barça closed last season with 1,045 million in total debt despite getting rid of 10% of the television rights of the league for 25 years. For this concept, the club entered 266 million of which most were used to cover the imbalance between income and expenses that the club places at 200 million a year.

If the treasury and what other clubs owe to Barça are taken into account, the debt stands at 608 million, 11% less than last year, as detailed this morning by the economic vice president, Eduard Romeu, during a meeting with the press. The manager calculated that the gap between income and expenses (the aforementioned 200 million) will close in 2024 when several player contracts with very high chips expire.

The photograph of the club after activating the first lever (in board terminology) is that of a club that maintains a negative equity of 353 million. Although it is true that they are a hundred million less than last year, the club is still in the danger zone.

For this reason, this season Barça has already launched new extraordinary measures (or levers) to redirect the situation. The first is a sale of an additional 15% of the football rights and the second is that of Barça Studios. With these two he has entered around 600 million for this season.

When the club's accounts for last year are analyzed in detail, Barça managed to close with profits (98 million) thanks mainly to the sale of television rights. Revenues were 1,017 million, of which 266 million correspond to the transfer of those rights for 25 years. The disastrous sporting performance in European competitions last year only meant the loss of 12 million, Romeu explained.

In the chapter of expenses, the club was not able to reduce the wage bill as budgeted since in the end 518 million was spent on the payment of players. Even so, the item for sports salaries is the lowest since the 2016/2017 season. That contention has been blown up again in the current season when 656 million have been budgeted. It is the highest figure since the 2020/2019 season.

The financial managers of the club have not given details of the commissions paid by the club for operations such as Spotify or purchases of players such as the new idol Robert Lewandowski. These commissions are included in a heading called foreign services, whose account rises to 120 million.