Joan Laporta, Barcelona, 2023/24
© IMAGO
Barcelona are on the verge of securing a huge investment and returning to Financial Fair Play normality.
Catalan daily Sport have reported that Joan Laporta is on the verge of securing a €200 million investment by selling off VIP seats at the refurbished Camp Nou.
This is a massive investment of cashflow that will, along with the €100m signing bonus received from renewing their kit deal with Nike, push Barcelona back into the 1:1 bracket in La Liga's Financial Fair Play rules.
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But who would be the winners and losers of such a seismic shift? We've had a look and come up with three of each:
Winner: Joan Laporta
The biggest winner of all of this is undoubtedly Joan Laporta. The man who ran for president with a promise to bring Barcelona back to the top table of European football while also fixing the financial mess the club was in and rebuilding the stadium.
It all seemed impossible, really. Something had to give and that something was the greatest player of all-time leaving the club for free on a random weekday in August 2021.
Leo Messi's departure would have killed most presidential tenures, but Laporta is a masterful politician. He juked away from responsibility and, with the help of Mateu Alemany, began making a succession of financial moves that would astound everyone.
Without serious financial power, Joan Laporta has relied on La Masia to fill out the Barcelona squad
© IMAGO - Without serious financial power, Joan Laporta has relied on La Masia to fill out the Barcelona squad
The "levers" as they came to be called were devilishly tricky financial tricks designed to flood Barcelona with short-term cash, allowing major investment in the men's first team to ensure they remained competitive atop La Liga and in the Champions League.
This was Laporta's "virtuous circle" - where winning on the pitch would generate such massive income that Barcelona could then fix their financial issues and then invest even more money to generate even more money.
Of course, holding them back from that was always Javier Tebas and La Liga's Financial Fair Play rules which, because of Barcelona's debt, have had them clamped in a 1:4 state where for every one Euro they wished to spend, they had to raise four Euros.
But now, with this last lever, Barcelona will return to the 1:1 state where they can spend every penny they earn. And with the Camp Nou refurbishments soon to be completed, and the Barcelona team flying atop La Liga with a squad of talented young players in a sensible wage structure (well, mostly). The virtuous circle is working!
READ MORE:Kylian Mbeckham: A Galactico Too Far
Loser: Real Madrid
Barcelona were a financial mess for years, they couldn't really sign anyone without stressing about registering them. They needed fortuitously timed injuries to allow them the financial legroom necessary to get these signings on the pitch. Meanwhile Los Blancos had access to near limitless financial might, signing pretty much anyone and everyone they tried to (except for Leny Yoro).
And yet they only won La Liga three times during this period? And the Champions League only twice?
Real Madrid won the Champions League in 2023/24.
© IMAGO - Real Madrid won the Champions League in 2023/24.
Look, Real Madrid have had some impressive successes over the last few years for sure, but it wasn't the total domination it should have been given the money disparity. Nothing like it. Despite being financially crippled, Barcelona beat them 3-0 in a Supercup final and took La Liga off them in 2022/23.
And now the financial shackles are coming off just as Real Madrid look an unwieldy squad overstuffed with Galacticos? Oh dear.
Winner: Dani Olmo
Part of the reason Barcelona only signed Dani Olmo this summer and not Dani Olmo and Nico Williams is because the Basque winger wanted an assurance he would be registered for La Liga, which of course Barcelona could not provide.
Hell, they only managed to register Olmo using a percentage of Andreas Christensen's wages as he was ruled out until January with injury.
Olmo signed anyway. And he has shown immense patience and faith with Barcelona. Never complaining even as he missed the first two gameweeks as they didn't have the space to register him.
Dani Olmo has always kept faith in Barcelona.
© IMAGO - Dani Olmo has always kept faith in Barcelona.
Then he was registered, scored on debut and despite injuries has 6 goals in 11 games for the club. But he was still facing the fact that he was going to be unregistered in January with no clear way for him to be re-registered.
Well, now things are different. His loyalty has been rewarded.
Good for you, Dani Olmo.
Loser: Premier League clubs
Premier League clubs, fans and media types have rejoiced in Barcelona no longer having the kind of financial muscle that saw them beat out Premier League teams for players, or sign Premier League teams' players.
Because even in the banter era several players like Jules Kounde and Raphinha rejected moves to Premier League clubs in favour of joining "broke" Barcelona. Frenkie de Jong repeatedly rebuffed everyone (more on him in a second) to stay at Barcelona. Ilkay Gundogan left the all-conquering Man City to go and give his last great season to Barcelona. But at least the Blaugrana were held in check by their financial issues.
But if those issues are now gone? The banter era is over already?
Duck and cover, sports fans!
Winner: Frenkie de Jong
No one showed quite as much loyalty to Barcelona as Frenkie de Jong. The Dutch midfielder is so loyal he stayed at Barcelona even when the heirarchy at Barcelona wanted to get rid of him! Joan Laporta wanted shot of the Dutch midfielder and there was a frankly distasteful media campaign to push him out and into the waiting arms of Man Utd, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich or some other European giant.
Frenkie never budged, though.
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Of course, Barcelona only wanted to sell him because of a deal Frenkie had struck with previous President Josep Bartomeu.
Bartomeu, in order to avoid sanctions for leaving his term as president with the club in debt, cooked up a deal with four players to restructure their contracts so that they earned basically nothing for that season but would get paid all their money back later.
Well, later came during Joan Laporta's tenure, and Frenkie de Jong is the highest paid midfielder on earth earning an eye-watering €19 million a year gross.
Barcelona didn't want to pay him this, especially as he hadn't exactly set the team alight with his performances. And so we got the media campaigns, which probably peaked when Gary Neville said that Frenkie should sue Barcelona, even though they had never actually failed to pay him they just didn't want to keep doing it.
Anyway, if Barcelona return to 1:1 then the urgency to sell Frenkie de Jong for non-footballing reasons will be gone. Okay he will need to play better, but at least it'll be about the football, not the finances.
Frenkie de Jong's future at Barcelona will now be about the football.
© IMAGO - Frenkie de Jong's future at Barcelona will now be about the football.
Loser: Journalists
The final loser is us, the writers, journalists and content creators. Why are we losers? Because Barcelona cooking up new schemes every other week to register their new signings and sell off future parts of their club just to afford the money to bring in players was an absolute goldmine. There was so much to write about and it was tremendously fun to do so. Just look at that Frenkie story above, and there was loads more stuff like that - it was great! And now the party is over.
RIP Barcelona banter era 2019-2024 you will be missed.