July 13, 2022
The brief from today:
Barcelona and their “economic levers”
The summer transfer window is in full swing, and one of the main protagonists are Barcelona. Only last summer Messi was ushered out of the club because of the dire financial situation of the Spanish side. Along with Messi, the payroll was roughly €600million, and total debt was close to €1billion. It wasn’t enough to ship off high earners like the Argentine as well as Antoine Griezmann, they had to balance the books in other ways. Last month, during an assembly meeting called with the Barca socios (club member owners), a vote took place on whether the club should sell 49.9 percent of the club’s licensing (for about €270million), as well as 25 percent of Barca’s TV rights (for roughly €250million)—the latter for an undetermined length of time. A group of roughly 4,000 socios representing the total 150,000 were supposed to vote, but in the end only about 1,200 took part in the two rounds of voting. Despite the club not really providing the socios with explicit details on the true long term picture of these sales, the result was a resounding 88 percent and 84 percent, respectively, in favor of both measures. These sales, “financial levers” as club president, Joan Laporta, coined them, were primarily meant to raise funds to offset debt, but as mentioned earlier, Barcelona are quite active in the transfer market. Today, the club announced an agreement with Leeds to sign their winger/forward, Raphina, for what could be a total €65 million including add-ons. They are also rumored to be willing to meet Bayern’s valuation of a 33-year-old Lewandowski, which could be as high as €60 million. All this when critical pieces of the club—the image and TV rights—have been mortgaged to steady the ship. The ownership model of the club is constantly lauded because it consists of club members, but when some were quoted in the The Athletic after last month’s vote as saying, “I don’t need the details, just do it. Let’s get out of this [financial] hole and start signing big players again,” then where is the financial discipline needed to balance the books coming from? That mindset, coupled with the aforementioned substandard representation at the meeting, make it unsurprising that Laporta is operating the way he is in the transfer market despite the club’s debt.
Time will tell whether Laporta’s decisions will help, or hurt, Barcelona
Fenerbahce and Özil part ways
It was meant to be an emotional union between Ozil and Turkish club, Fenerbahce, when the German born player with Turkish roots joined the side in 2021, but things have soured this year. Ozil was frozen out of the side back in March with the club and player having differing stances on who was at fault. For his part, Ozil went on social media a few months ago saying, “Every time I sweat our glorious jersey, I have no other purpose than to contribute. I have many goals that I would like to live in Fenerbahce, my childhood love. I will not quit football until I do these things.” When the club hired Portuguese manager, Jorge Jesus, last month, however, the writing was on the wall when the new coach said it was “the end of the Ozil era.” As of today, Fenerbahce and Ozil have parted ways after his contract was terminated by mutual consent despite still having two years remaining. The World Cup winner is now rumored to be on his way to fellow Turkish Super Lig side: Istanbul Basaksehir.
Ozil (center) has now parted ways with Fenerbahce