How do you say "phew" in Catalan again?

After the sale of 25% of the income from TV rights to the American investment fund Sixth Street for 400 million euros, and the sale of 24.5% of the shares of Barça Studios to the Socios.com platform in early August for 100 million euros, FC Barcelona announced on Friday a new operation which should allow cash to enter and register all or part of the new summer recruits with LaLiga.

This Friday, the club has indeed indicated that it has sold an additional 24.5% Barça Studios to the company Orpheus Media, managed by Jaume Roures, for one hundred million euros.

Known in Spain as the "fourth lever", this sale of Barça Studios (a subsidiary responsible for managing the club's audiovisual productions and digital business) will provide new cash to Barça, which should increase its salary cap and help it to register at least some of its new players with LaLiga.

As a reminder, the leaders of FC Barcelona had obtained the approval of the socios (supporters-shareholders) to sell 49.9% of the shares of Barça Studios.

Unlike previous transactions with Sixth Street, these sales of Barça Studios shares do not extend over a period of 25 years, but are definitive.

A race against time to enroll recruits

Orpheus Media is a company run by Jaume Roures, founder of Mediapro, a former Ligue 1 broadcaster whose default in 2020 plunged French football into an unprecedented financial crisis.

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.

If this new sale should give some air to the Catalans, nothing says however that all or part of the new recruits can be registered with LaLiga before the first league match against Rayo Vallecano on Saturday.

And if the club were not authorized to register all seven players (Raphina, Koundé, Lewandowski, Kessié, Christiansen + Dembélé and Sergi Roberto who signed a new contract this summer), Joan Laporta would then have to go back to the fight to find new sources of income.

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