FC Barcelona announced on Monday the sale of 25% of the shares of Barça Studios, one of its subsidiaries responsible for managing the club’s digital trading and audiovisual productions, to the Socios.com platform for 100 million euros. “We have the authorization of the assembly (of the representatives of the supporters-shareholders) to sell 49% of the shares and for the moment we have sold 25% to Socios.com”, indicated the president blaugrana Joan Laporta, Monday , during the press conference presenting Jules Koundé.
After the sale of 10% and then 15% of income from La Liga TV rights to the American investment fund Sixth Street this summer for a total of 400 million euros, Barça continues its maneuvers to obtain cash quickly in order to to be able to register all its recruits (Raphinha, Kessié, Lewandowski, Christensen, Koundé) in compliance with the salary cap before the start of the championship. In August 2021, Laporta announced after an audit of the club’s finances that Barca faced an estimated total debt of €1.35 billion.
Barça on all fronts to find cash
But, unlike previous transactions with Sixth Street, this sale to the Socios.com platform does not extend over a period of 25 years, but is definitive. “It’s a sale forever,” Laporta clarified. “There would be a way to recover this 25% but for the moment this operation means the entry of a new partner, Socios.com, which has injected 100 million euros”, added the Blaugrana leader.
Socios.com is a platform that allows clubs to increase their interaction with supporters and better monetize it, including the use of Fan Tokens, a kind of digital assets based on blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
In addition to the sale of part of their TV rights, Barça have recently played on several fronts to obtain quick cash and thus be active in the market with a loan of 595 million euros from Goldman Sachs and an agreement of sponsorship with Spotify for approximately 435 million euros.