BarcelonaDuring Josep Maria Bartomeu’s tenure, Barça achieved significant revenue growth, reaching a record 990 million euros in the 2018-2019 academic year. The big problem was that spending also skyrocketed, mainly due to the exorbitant increase in the wage bill. The pandemic context, which led to the closure of the Camp Nou for more than a year, ended up leading the entity to a terrible economic situation: it reached expenses of 1,136 million euros in the 2020-2021 season. Barça is now getting a significant reduction in the payroll from Joan Laporta’s board of directors. However, the rise in revenue, which last year stood at 631 million, is costing more.
Barça have recovered some of the money thanks to the return of the public to the stadium, the Palau and Johan Cruyff. However, it has not yet managed to close any major trade agreements to add new funding channels. The possibility of selling 49% of Barça Studios, which was approved by the compromising partners, has not yet been finalized and, as ARA explained, the club will only accept CVC money from the LaLiga Impulso project if the income counts as capital instead of debt. The other way to get a good amount of money is through sponsorships. In this field, negotiations are underway to close the contract with Spotify, which if all goes well will become the new sponsor of the fronts of men’s and women’s t-shirts, training clothes and title rights of the Camp Nou for an annual figure that will be between 70 and 75 million euros counting the variables for sports performance.
“There is nervousness in the commercial department because Spotify has not yet returned the signed agreement. The problem is the high level of expectations that has been generated, but it must be taken into account how cumbersome are the approval processes that must pass such a contract, in which it must be “Go clause by clause,” a source with a rise in the club told ARA. Beyond Spotify, nothing is about to close in terms of sponsorships, according to sources close to the commercial area. Barça currently has 29 sponsors, less than the 42 it had in 2019. In addition, some, such as Rakuten and Beko, have already said that they will not continue beyond June 30, 2022, and others, such as Stanley, which also ends contract this summer, is sure to lose assets. In any case, the club does not rule out that the American brand can continue as a global sponsor despite being left without the front of the women’s shirt.
Alex Barbany, in doubt
All this means that the revenue does not increase in flight. And from one part of the club, the director of new income, Àlex Barbany, points out that it came from the hand of Joan Laporta after he took an active part in the Love Barça campaign. In fact, he had been chosen as its CEO before the path of Ferran Reverter was chosen. But for months, both the president and Reverter, who has not stepped into the club’s offices since announcing his resignation on Feb. 8, have lost confidence in Barbany. To the point that in the days before Christmas in the corridors of the club it was assumed that he would be fired. Then, however, it was decided to keep it in mind that he is one of the people who is leading the negotiations with Spotify.
Aside from not getting the desired new revenue entries, there have been some Barbany behaviors that have not been liked within the club. For example, the poor relationship he has with the more than 80 workers in his charge and which appears with his Maserati in the Barça facilities when the rest of the executives and senior executives do so with the Cupra, as stipulated by contract with this club sponsor.
Goldman Sachs at ‘Matchday’ presentation
At the press conference of the series dedicated to the successful 2020-2021 season of Barça women’s, Matchday: Queens of the pitch, the director of professional sports, Xavier Budó, reported that “the club has noticed a growing interest in the team of potential sponsors that will probably materialize soon.” This, according to the executive, “will allow us to bet more on grassroots football, creating more women’s football teams, and give more structure to the first team.” But sources familiar with Barça’s sponsorship situation are less optimistic. “There is nothing else,” said one of them. “Nothing beyond Spotify. Everything else is smoke, ”says another. However, a third source explains that “on the horizon there are several sponsorships with women, they are being negotiated.”
The gala presentation of the series that took place that same day, on February 25, at the Palau de la Música Catalana was attended by many Catalan personalities and those around Barça. Some attendees, however, stood out more than others in Barça. There was a representative of Goldman Sachs, with whom Barça is negotiating a loan of 1.5 billion euros to finance the Espai Barça. The American investment bank “wanted to get a first-hand look at the club’s situation after Reverter’s resignation when he returned to negotiations with them in the United States”, explains an important Barça official.
