Laporta's decisive trip to Munich

BarcelonaBarça narrowly missed out on reaching the Champions League final in Munich. However, this Bavarian city, a beer haven, played an important role in the club's season finale. Joan Laporta traveled there, taking advantage of the opportunity. Lamine Yamal's Spanish team played in the Nations League final. last weekend. The match, despite the participation of several Barça players, was secondary on the agenda of Barça's executive president. The visit had a clear purpose: to speak in person with Aleksander Čeferin, the president of UEFA, to obtain a reduction in the fine that European football's governing body intends to impose on Barça for repeatedly violating its fair play Financial.

"Laporta went to Munich to sort things out, and it seems to have gone well," sources close to the leader told ARA. The relationship between Ceferin and Laporta is currently cordial, to the point that the UEFA president told the Barça president that it's a shame the Catalan club won't be participating. in the Club World Cup that started this weekendLaporta's latest move goes against Barça's Super League bid under Florentino Pérez. Everything seems to indicate that UEFA's financial sanction will be a manageable fine for Barça. The potential €60 million could be reduced to a third of that figure. It's a considerable unexpected expense in a still-tough economic climate for Aristides Maillol, but it's not the slap in the face that was feared.

Considering that UEFA has yet to make the sanction official and that Barça's 2024-25 season closes on June 30, ARA has asked club officials if they are working with the expectation of incurring this financial penalty in the current year or if it will be postponed until 2025-26. "The club's financial managers should discuss this with the auditor," they simply stated in response.

So this is another topic to add to the list of talks that Barça and Crowe, the club's new auditor, will have to resolve in view of the figures that will be presented at the October shareholders' meeting. The first is that Crowe accepts the 100 million euros from the box lever. VIP of the new Camp Nou (they must be built before June 30th for this to happen); the second, that it not request a devaluation of the book value of 208 million for 51% of Barça Studios, as happened last year with the club's previous auditor, Grant Thornton, who added an exception to the accounts due to this matter. And the third, that it not consider the 157.5 million that Barça contributed in 2022 to Locksley Invest (the company that manages the club's television rights in La Liga) during the sale of 25% of these rights to be devalued.

Why will UEFA reduce the sanction?

UEFA's initial intention was to impose an exemplary sanction on Barça because it is the second time that he has failed to comply with his fair playThe club had already had to pay €500,000 to the European body for financial non-compliance in the 2022-2023 season after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected Barça's appeal. The reason is the same as the current one: UEFA ruled that the levers (such as television rights and Barça Studios) that Barça has executed to be able to sign and renew players from 2022 cannot be included in the calculations of the fair play because they are "profits from the sale of intangible assets" and not "operating income" as Barça considers. Taking this into account, Laporta's board has played with fire by continuing to rely on levers to fulfill the fair play when he had already received a UEFA sanction for this reason and was under threat of a more severe sanction if he reoffended.

Due to this repeat offense, there was a danger that the new sanction would entail an astronomical financial fine, the loss of points in the Champions League, or a reduction in the number of registered players. But UEFA will soften the blow: it will avoid the last two scenarios, significantly reduce the first after talks with Barça, and will exercise a leniency it has already shown other clubs in the past. The sanction, thus, will be in the range of 15-20 million euros.

The main argument used by Laporta to Ceferin to soften the situation is that Barça's nature as a non-profit sports association prevents it from carrying out capital increases, a resource that most of its main European rivals are able to use because they are public limited sports companies. Levers, according to Laporta, are the way that has been found to be able to continue competing sportingly at the top level. Barça has also played with the argument that La Liga accepts in its fair play Financial is the sale of assets for a fixed period of time in exchange for short-term cash.

The consequences

But the agreement between Barça and UEFA has fine details. Beyond having to pay a fine of between 15 and 20 million euros, the Blaugrana club will have to face the threat of the dreaded exemplary sanction being imposed for the next three seasons if it uses a lever to calculate "operational income" again. Therefore, it is practically ruled out that Barça will sell 49% of BLM (the club's retail sales) in the medium term. UEFA has made it clear to Barça that it will have to comply with its fair play financially thanks to just three aspects: new revenue from the new Camp Nou, the sale of players, and salary cuts for the squad. Furthermore, Barça is committed to restoring its balance sheet within a three-year period.