Barcelona activate fourth financial lever - new signings set to be registered
By Sean Walsh
Barcelona have announced that they have activated their fourth financial lever of the summer after selling 24.5% of Barca Studios to Orpheus Media.
Club president Joan Laporta has been busy trying to improve the Blaugrana's precarious financial situation and has been offsetting portions of revenue streams in exchange for cash up front.
And Barcelona announced on Friday that the sale of a further 24.5% of Barça Studios - having already sold that same amount to Socios.com earlier this summer - to Orpheus Media is complete.
A statement read: "FC Barcelona announces the sale of 24.5% of Barça Studios to the company Orpheus Media, managed by Mr Jaume Roures, audiovisual producer with an extensive career in the creation of audiovisual and digital content, for an amount of 100 million euros.
"This agreement complements the one already signed last July 29 with Socios.com and will serve to accelerate the growth of the Club's digital strategy, NFT and Web.3.
"The sale has taken term in accordance with the authorization of the General Assembly of Members and Partners of FC Barcelona held last October 23.
"With these investments, the strategic partners of Barça Studios demonstrate their confidence in the value of the project and the future of digital content in the world of sport."
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Barcelona were at risk of starting the new La Liga season this weekend without any of their new summer signings registered due to these ongoing financial woes, while Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie have clauses in their contracts which would allow them to leave for free if this were to be the case.
However, it is now believed that this fourth lever will allow the club to register their newest players - plus Ousmane Dembele and Sergi Roberto after re-signing fresh contracts - in time for Saturday's clash with Rayo Vallecano at Camp Nou.
Reports in Spain suggest that Barcelona's plans to trigger a fifth lever this month involve the sale of Frenkie de Jong. 90min understands he is the subject of intense interest from Chelsea, while Manchester United agreed an €85m fee with Barça last month but a deal has since stalled.