Barcelona is looking to sell twenty-five percent of its TV rights to ease the financial woes that are plaguing the club.
Barcelona’s board of directors has called an assembly of its members on June 16 to vote on whether to approve the proposal of selling the club’s LaLiga broadcasting rights to one or more investors, the club said on Tuesday.
In December, the club already opted out of a first-of-its-kind deal in Europe with the equity fund CVC Capital Partners which was agreed by 38 of La Liga’s 42 member clubs.
CVC bought an 8.2% stake in a new company that will get revenues from La Liga broadcasting and sponsorship rights of those clubs for the next 50 years in exchange for 1.994 billion euros ($2.24 billion) in investment.
Barcelona, backed by the Spanish FA joined Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao in taking legal action against La Liga over that financial agreement.
Barcelona members will vote on whether to authorize “the assignment to one or more investors of up to 25 percent of the revenues for the use of the TV rights (…) and/or obtaining financing on the basis of the mentioned TV rights,” the club said in a statement.
Members will also vote on whether or not to authorize the acquisition by one or more investors of a minority stake in Barca Licensing & Merchandising (BLM), the club’s retail business unit.
Barcelona did not disclose how much money it expects to receive from such deals with estimated costs being close to 700 million euros.
The club has been going through a severe financial crisis mostly brought on by Covid-19 failing to register a number of players and even having to let Lionel Messi walk last year.
They are slowly looking to get back on their feet by signing deals with mega-corporations as they bid to return to the top of European football.
