Barça will not be able to finance the new Camp Nou as planned.

BarcelonaThe hectic movements of Barça's players on the pitch have given way to action in Aristides Maillol's offices. While player renewals are being finalized, with Lamine Yamal's being the most prominent, the club is keeping an eye on the shadow of the great sword of Damocles on the horizon in financial matters: some €800 million must be repaid from the financing of the Espai Barça construction project. before 2028. The figure is a result of the bonds (122.5 million for the first maturity of the operation), interest, and bridge loans. However, this forecast is likely to be adjusted due to the construction work on the asset that should allow the repayment of the financing for the Espai Barça, the remodeled Camp Nou, They are almost a year late.

Thus, according to ARA, confirmed by official sources at Barça, Joan Laporta's board of directors is already working on the option of refinancing the transaction with more than twenty investors. Investment bank Goldman Sachs will continue to have a leading role in this matter. "The option to refinance the debt (in some of its tranches) was included in the Espai Barça financing plan," official club sources explained to this newspaper. "The negotiation will be slow because many parties must reach an agreement, but this refinancing was and is inevitable. The operation, from the outset, was not designed to return the money; it was designed to be refinanced," says a person involved in the largest financial transaction in Barça's history. "It's a transaction completely tied to the stadium's revenue, and Barça can't pay for it from its current cash flow. Therefore, if the stadium works are delayed, there must be a postponement," he asserts.

Since last year, according to this newspaper, Goldman Sachs has assumed the refinancing of Espai Barça will be a done deal. The Americans aren't interested in the project being financially blocked because in this situation, there would be no possibility of getting their money back, and therefore, they will be receptive to negotiations. But this good faith on the part of Goldman Sachs doesn't come without a price. "The refinancing will entail some financial penalty for Barça," the same person states. The refinancing will only affect the payment of the principal. The interest on the transaction, which has been accruing since April 24, 2023, when the Espai Barça securitization fund was created, will have to continue to be paid. "Goldman Sachs has no problem refinancing the Espai Barça in exchange for Barça paying more interest," a specialist in Barça's economy told ARA.

Why did Barça sign if they already knew they would have to refinance?

"It's a deal designed to have a fairly stable fixed installment that allows you to move forward with the work. You'll pay more interest, but it allows you to move forward during a difficult financial period, and in five years, when you'll surely be better off and Camp Nou will provide the expected money, you'll be able to repay it," explains the source familiar with the deal, referring to the reason for signing a financing agreement that will need to be refinanced later. Furthermore, Barça has the current market situation in its favor, which will likely allow it to close the refinancing agreement under better terms than those it signed in 2023, with bond interest rates, in some cases, above 7%. "It was reckless to sign the deal in the context of the 2023 markets," considers the Barça financier. "Now, with the refinancing, you can get interest rates of 5% or even lower."

The new Camp Nou, if the latest forecasts are met, will be fully operational by the summer of 2027, a year later than Laporta promised when the works began. Therefore, this refinancing will need to clarify the new date from which Barça must repay the investors' money, because in the current financing announcement, the summer of 2026 is marked as the end of the grace period for beginning to repay the bond issues for the Espai Barça. However, without the renovation completed, Barça will not yet be able to meet this enormous expense. The firm Legends calculated that the Camp Nou, once fully renovated, will generate 346 million euros annually, the first 100 million of which will be income for Barça. The remainder will go to the twenty investment funds that are financially enabling the works.

The other economic limits

2028 is the first major hurdle in the current financing of Espai Barça, but more dates are looming later. Barça must repay 246.5 million in bonds in 2030, and 266.5 million in 2032. That is, between 2028 and 2032, Barça will have to repay a total of 635.5 million of the Espai Barça bond issue (excluding interest). If there is no refinancing of the operation that alleviates this economic pressure.