Laporta accelerating CVC deal to help Barcelona sign Haaland

Barcelona are close to sealing their incorporation into LaLiga Group International, a holding company created by the league with the aim of sponsoring all the business areas of the competition, including television rights. This new company has been set up with the capital contributed by the CVC investment fund, which controls 8.2% of the capital for the next 50 years.

Negotiations are drawing to an end and there will be an official announcement soon. The main reason is Joan Laporta’s will to accelerate Erling Haaland’s deal and for that he wants a cash injection. The club have taken the decision to sign it for that reason, and because the deal with Spotify as the sponsor has grown a bit more complicated.

From La Liga’s side Javier Tebas is keen to sign the deal because then Real Madrid would be the only side isolated outside the CVC agreement.

There are various parts that have been negotiated on. Including that the agreement between Barcelona and CVC will not include TV rights as a guarantee, as they are already part of the 595 million loan from Goldman Sachs. But also that, beyond this guarantee, there is no other in its place. Does that mean that Barça does not have to return the amount that ends up coming from CVC? No. But the investment fund understands that Barça has enough solvency to not need to provide guarantees.

This point is important because it would help Barça not to count the income from the fund as a debt, but rather as a contribution of equity in the form of capital, which is how Barça will explain the agreement, beyond the fact that the contributions have to be returned. On the other hand, this deal will allow a considerable increase in the salary limit with which to undertake operations such as Haaland's. The club expects their next budget to reach around 700 million euros and the salary limit could reach 400m, so the combination of both would provide a lot of flexibility when making significant investments in salaries this summer.