FC Barcelona Readying Fourth ‘Economic Lever’ Amid Player Registration Doubts

FC Barcelona are ready to activate a fourth ‘economic lever’ amid doubts that they won’t be able to register their new signings.

Despite being in debts of around $1.5bn, Barca have managed to sign new players such as Robert Lewandowski, Jules Kounde and Raphinha with the activation of two of these levers in a pair of separate deals with Sixth Street.

In short, the Catalans sold 25% of their television rights for the next 25 years to the American investment firm in return for a total figure believed to be worth €567mn ($575mn).

Then this week, the club activated a third lever by selling a 24.5% stake in Barca Studios to fan token site socios.com for €100mn ($101.5mn), which it was thought would help them register the new signings and some of those that have penned new contracts such as Ousmane Dembele and Sergi Roberto.

As relayed by Mundo Deportivo, however, this might not be the case – which has led to Barca’s board of directors greenlighting the activation of a fourth lever if needed.

This development was originally reported on by Catalan channel TV3, who say that Barca are ready to sell a further 24.5% share in Barca Studios for the same price that socios.com paid.

Perhaps it is only this way that Lewandowski, Kounde, Raphinha, Andreas Christensen, Franck Kessie, Dembele and Roberto can be registered with just 10 days to spare until Barca get their La Liga season underway at home against Rayo Vallecano.

And according to the same outlet, TV3, there are three offers on the table for the stake from socios.com, Israeli firm Ownix, and a still unrevealed party.

With the extra money, Barca might also be able to approach Manchester City about buying Bernardo Silva. Yet that potential deal has been said to be heavily dependent on Frenkie de Jong leaving Xavi Hernandez’s first team squad.

Though Manchester United and Barca agreed a deal for the Dutchman, he has been reluctant to join an outfit that can’t offer him Champions League football.

This week, however, it seems that Chelsea – who have qualified for UEFA’sEFA
elite club tournament – have thrown their hat into the ring and will try to convince the 25-year-old to switch allegiances.