On the eve of the start of the season in Spain, a financial injection worth millions from Germany freed FC Barcelona from dire need. As the online portal El Confidencial reported on Thursday, a Frankfurt-listed company called “Libero Football Finance” is acquiring shares in the media division “Barça Studios” for around 60 million euros – this is a platform that primarily generates audiovisual content. The official announcement of the agreement was still pending on Thursday afternoon. However, according to SZ information, the deal was already fixed.
An old acquaintance from the football business was in charge of the negotiations: Peter Kenyon, who made a name for himself as a manager at Manchester United and Chelsea FC and is a member of the supervisory board of the investment holding company. One of the faces of “Libero” is the former German national player Fredi Bobic, who was last managing director of Hertha BSC, which had been relegated to the Bundesliga. Bobic is available to “Libero” as an advisory board member. On its website, the company offers itself to clubs across Europe as a financier, broker and strategic advisor.
Barça needed the company as a cleaner. The traditional Catalan club, which has billions in debt, had actually sold the shares now acquired by “Libero” last year. The two buyers – “Orpheus” and “Socios.com” – recently asked for the postponement of an installment payment of a total of 60 million euros, which was originally due this summer. Barcelona agreed to the deferral. The problem, however, was that the club had already booked the 60 million against the league association LFP as income. And so what had to happen happened. The league association was alarmed – and questioned whether the budget for the coming season was sustainable.
Barcelona haven’t even registered to join the league yet
These concerns had a direct impact on squad planning. Due to its disastrous financial situation, FC Barcelona has to meet certain requirements from the LFP. Among other things, the personnel costs, which have shot up to astronomical heights in recent years, must be massively and quickly reduced – and of course be covered by income. The direct consequence of the missing 60 million could also be examined on Thursday on the homepage of the league association. Only twelve players were registered as professionals under Rubrum FC Barcelona in the afternoon. Compared to the beginning of the week, Franck Kessié, who moved to Saudi Arabia, was absent; Moreover, it was expected that Ousmane Dembélé would also disappear, he survived the medical check at Paris Saint-Germain on Thursday. But all the additions were missing: Inigo Martínez, Oriol Romeu – and the German national player Ilkay Gündogan, who moved from triple winner Manchester City to Barcelona.
Gündogan is one of the players who, with foresight, had a clause written into the contract that entitles him to terminate the contract immediately if he is not registered with the league before the first matchday – Barcelona is playing at FC Getafe this Sunday. However, insiders assume that the transfer proceeds for Dembélé (25 million euros), Kessié (12.5), their saved millions in salaries and above all the 60 million euros from “Libero” will mean that Barcelona will lose all outstanding professionals in one fell swoop can license – and possibly still has a little money left over to make another transfer.