sport news Barcelona Q&A: Can they buy Robert Lewandowski and will Frenkie de Jong be sold? trends now
June 16 could mark a new era for Barcelona.
If members vote to allow the sell-off of a chunk of the club's future TV rights earnings and half of its retail arm, then they will be able to sign Robert Lewandowski and have a better chance of building a competitive team around him.
But will they still need to see Frenkie de Jong to Manchester United? And what do they lose by mortgaging the club's future in this way?
Sportsmail looks at the dilemma faces those who have to vote yes or no in two week's time.
Barcelona's members are set to make a decision with huge implications for the club's finances
Why the need for more financial contortionism? Can the club not just go out and sign Lewandowski?
As things stand the club are not even allowed to register midfielder Sergi Roberto on his cut-price new contract, much less Lewandowski.
LaLiga chief Javier Tebas also said Barcelona cannot afford the Pole and would need to sell stars to generate funds, causing club president Joan Laporta to ask the former to 'abstain from' making comments about the club's situation.
They need to bring more money to the club. They need to sell things: TV rights, shirts, and players, whatever they can; hence these two proposals being put to the vote.
The club would like to sign Robert Lewandowski, the Bundesliga's top scorer, but need to restructure their finances to be able to afford him
So let's talk proposal one. Instead of selling the club's replica shirts and keeping all the revenue they want to sell the retail arm making a quick buck at the expense of all the longer-term bucks. Is that it more or less it?
Well it's not the whole retail arm. It's 49.9 per cent of 'Barcelona Licensing and Merchandising' (BLM). The club would still have majority control over decision making if they wanted it.
Although actually they feel that one of the advantages of the deal is putting experts in charge of making more money from merchandising (it's not just shirts).
With the club shops having to close through the pandemic and no Leo Messi shirts to sell last season, revenue has fallen.
This is seen as selling half the business but to someone who can make it more profitable in the long-term.
There have been no Lionel Messi shirts to sell this season - affecting Barcelona's revenues
How much and to whom will it be sold?
The figure most often quoted 200m euros [£170m] to a consortium of two merchandising giants: Fanatics and Investindustrial.
And that means Barcelona only get 50.1 per cent of future profit on club merchandise but they get an immediate cash injection to help them get a better salary cap from La Liga?
The deal is unlikely to be finalised before the end of the month even if ratified by members so it will not go into the calculation for the salary cap for next season.
Refresh our memories regards the salary cap…
Twice a year LaLiga set salary limits for each club. It's not just salaries; it's the total spend on football staff.
There is a convoluted calculation, which subtracts projected spending on non-football costs from projected income.
If a club is going to make a million but has to pay out 500,000 in debt repayments or paying non-football staff, then it's salary limit is what's left, in this case 500,000.
Barcelona's finances were crippled during the pandemic when the Nou Camp was empty
And Barça's salary cap, for want of a better expression, is grim?
Losses from previous years are factored in which is where Barcelona, who were financially devastated by shut stadiums during the pandemic, and had an out-of-control wage bill, were really hit.
Declared losses of 481m [£410m] euros last year saw LaLiga set their salary limit at -144m euros [-£123m]. They were the only club to be in the minus.
Which means…
That the club can only register new players if they bring in four
