Last month, Barcelona sold an initial 25% stake in its production hub to Socios.com, a blockchain provider, for another $102.6 million as well as 25% of its La Liga television rights for the next 25 years for nearly $689 million
Last week Mediapro CEO Jaume Roures then came to the rescue of Barça with a further 100 million euros in a move that has been heavily criticised by fans, but the cash injection has finally allowed the club to activate the fourth ‘lever’.
The club’s moves to strengthen their squad, despite it’s poor economic situation, are causing surprise and drawing criticism from across the football world. The activation of the famous ‘levers’ in mortgaging the club have allowed club president Joan Laporta to go into the transfer market and sign players like Lewandowski, Koundé and Raphinha.
The most recent figure to criticize Barça’s decisions is Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
“I don’t get it for several reasons,” he said. “If you tell me I don’t have any money, then I don’t spend anymore. It happened to me twice with my credit card, luckily that was a few years ago. I’m looking at it as a football fan, and I don’t understand it,” said the German coach.
Klopp also compared Barça ‘s situation with that of Borussia Dortmund a few years ago. “The only club I know of that once sold the stadium and it’s other rights in advance was Dortmund. Hans-Joachim Watzke had to come in at the last second and save the club from certain bankruptcy. But I don’t know if there is a Watzke in Barcelona,” he added.
In addition to his criticism of Barcelona, Jurgen Klopp is also on a crusade against the demanding football calendar. “There is only one direction this is going and that is against a brick wall. There is no one who really speaks for the players. When talking about the lack of breaks for players, the UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin comes out of his office and makes a controversial statement saying that people have to work much harder. I know, Ceferin doesn’t have to tell me that,” Klopp said in a recent interview.
“I don’t want to offend anyone, but I just want to point out again that this game will not work without the players and it’s only really enjoyable for the fans and for myself when we can see that the best players are on the pitch,” added Klopp , who says there is no longer any time to train. “If I’m the only one saying something, I might be wrong and I don’t mind. But I’m not! You can speak to anyone who works directly with the players and they will say exactly the same,” he concluded.
