Reminds me of that time they removed the cross from their badge.
Apparently Olmo will become a free agent next week after Barca lost a court case to register him?
Can see Man City trying to sign him.
It’s a weird case. His contract includes a clause that if they fail to register him he can leave on a free and that very nearly happened in the summer. In the end they were only able to provisionally register him through a loophole created when Christensen went down with a long term injury. They have to go through the process again in this winter window and it has come as a surprise that their case was rejected even though this was acknowledged as a possibility. I think the most likely outcome is it gets resolved, but if it doesnt Olmo would likely only be available on loan as he has expressed a desire to stay regardless.
I think the thing this raises is that for as seemingly strict as the registration limitation punishments are in La Liga for financial mismanagement, Barca are showing they arent actually strict enough to force a club into a different way of operating. They have been in this position for about 4 years now and go through this every window and every window they keep spending money and tapping up players.
His agent said that all the biggest English clubs (and who had European football) expressed certain interest. Had talks with Barry Hunter from our side. But going back to Barca was always going to be high on Dani’s list. Will be interesting if this really happens, he’s be one of the most wanted players.
Still expect them to squirm out of this one. The article references them coming up with ways to generate the income required, including selling VIP boxes thay could generate €100m.
I mean we could help them out and take Gavi, Yamal and Pedri off their hands. Just as a return the favour sort of deal to thank them for Coutinho
Barca will likely look to get rid of Fati.
It’s a pity that injuries have set him back so much.
Barca could do with sitting down and planning a few seasons and getting their finances settled. This every season is a joke and you think a lesser club would have been relegated.
They have the classic problem of fan ownership. Each president has to compete for votes among the socios in the near term, so none has an incentive to think beyond their term. German clubs generally seem to avoid that, probably with better club constitutions, but Barca is very much ‘win now’
Sounds like they’ve been to the Manchester City school of financial reporting.
The next Bojan.
Vini Jr red card at Valencia
Some things never change.
Still 1-0 Valencia
And Modric ties it 1-1
The last time Barca faced this kind of registration/financial crisis, they did a quick deal to sell off ‘BarcaVision’, basically some streaming rights and a barely existent holding vehicle (Bridgeburg) for them. I had not realized until today that that deal was in fact bullshit.
As far as I can tell, they were able to meet that financial compliance target by recognizing the value of BarcaVision on the basis of the sale of a minority interest to a German investment fund (Libero) for 120M Euro. That fund made an initial payment in cash (20M Euro), hey presto, there is the valuation supported, job done.
Fast forward to now - the deal never actually completed. Libero never paid the rest of the money. Now, maybe stuff happened, there was a reason the terms could not be met. Barcelona FC is suing Libero. But on the other hand, maybe Libero was never intended to actually pay 120M Euros, and they will settle out of court leaving Libero with a smaller percentage than reported, for a much smaller investment. Barca has since brought in their catering partner (Aramark) to cover 40M Euros of the investment and a portion of that equity, but it smells bad.
Their current plan is to sell off luxury boxes in a stadium that doesn’t exist yet, closing this month.
This all looks very much like a house of cards. My gut says Libero has a side deal letter, and Aramark probably has one too (probably locking Barca business in for 20 years to boot).
Shocker Barcelona have been allowed to play Olmo “temporarily” by the Spanish national court - who also didn’t inform La Liga of the case or allow them to file their arguments.
From the BBC article it seems like Barcelona’s argument that they’ve now sold $100m of VIP seats will be accepted. Womder how many of those VIP seats were bought by Middle Eastern companies that just so happen to have been established 2 days before buying $50m worth of seats.
I bet the judge had one (bought sorry)
This Super Cup is rather nice seeing Madrid getting absolutely towelled up by Barca.
Rudiger playing as a thug. Camavinga escaped a certain red. Lovely implosion.
Hang on Barca keeper gets a red.
Olmo could be coming on. What the?