Are Barca gambling with future or giving fans hope?

MAJOR signings, ongoing financial issues and plenty of anger from elsewhere in football – Barcelona’s summer certainly hasn’t been quiet.

Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde have all arrived at the Nou Camp for almost £200 million, despite the club being more than £1bn in debt.

To ease the financial pressure in the short term and allow their new signings to be registered, they have sold a percentage of their future television rights and of their media production unit Barca Studios, but the approach of club president Joan Laporta has led to accusations he is gambling with the club’s long-term future.

Barca are in a deep hole and trying to get out of it. Is everything they are doing right? No. Are they doing what they are supposed to do? Mostly, yes.

Laporta is repeating the virtuous circle that brought the club so much success in his first era in charge. All or nothing. Back then he also blamed previous regimes for the predicament he inherited.

Now, ignoring the financial havoc wrought by a global pandemic, he has found in immediate predecessor Josep Maria Bartomeu the perfect villain.

In fact, it was Bartomeu who separated some of the businesses that are now being sold for almost £760 million, allowing the club to buy players. Clearly under the former president, disastrous decisions were made on the sporting side, including expensive contract renewals for famous players – and Bartomeu himself would agree with that. But not everything was bad.

There has always been a civil war at Barcelona between two sides that fight constantly for power, represented now by Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell on one hand (the Catalan establishment) and Laporta on the other. That dynamic often forces the club president to go for short-termism to please the fans and media and not look at the bigger picture.

So Barcelona, through taking out loans and selling bits of the club, had the money to buy players. The problem though was registering them, because they were struggling to pay the new signings’ wages while adhering to La Liga’s strict financial fair play rules. Now, however, operating under La Liga’s 1/1 rule, every penny the club saves can be invested in the new players – previously, under the 1/4 rule, they needed a four-penny saving to be able to invest one. So now, for instance, if Gerard Pique finally agrees a massive reduction of his wages – something that seemed done but has slowed down in recent days – that will help the registration of Kounde, who will probably play in his place.

Laporta has opted to spend most of the money available now to assemble a strong squad, trusting that success on the pitch will bring money and partners, which will help pay wages and transfer fees in the future, which will bring success, which will bring top players, and so on.

Barcelona calculate that success on the pitch represents 30-40 percent of the value of the brand and they also believe their brand is so strong that it will survive even one or two years without the biggest successes as long as big players wear their shirt.

Those that do not see the whole plan the same way as Laporta fear for the future, however.

In 2003, when Laporta first arrived, Barcelona had an income of €170 million, mid-table compared with other European clubs. There was huge potential for improvement with smart decisions.

Now, though, Barcelona are at the top of the tree in terms of income, and the brand is as strong as it could be. Starting to win major trophies again will not really translate into a lot more growth in the short term. Basically, the club has already maximised traditional ways to earn money – TV rights, merchandising, tickets.

The only real way to produce growth in the medium- to long-term is through the club’s digital activities, but Laporta has just sold almost 50 percent of that business.

The key from now on – say the critics – is to generate cash flow, but it seems the first draft of the club’s budget for next year implies operational losses. Therefore, the only way to balance the revenues and expenses, and generate cash, will have to be selling more bits of the institution.

So Laporta’s vision carries many risks, and it needs success on the pitch.

What happens if success does not arrive on the pitch? Investment bank Goldman Sachs is providing €2 billion euros to the club in various loans and it would be ready to take over if necessary. – BBC Sport.