Barca raise another €310m with an additional 15% future TV cash sale to Sixth Street

July 22 - Spanish giants Barcelona have sold a further 15% of their La Liga television rights to US investment firm Sixth Street to generate funds to spend in the transfer market.

On Friday, the club confirmed the deal, which will grant the US investment group an additional 15% share of the club's media rights over 25 years.

At the end of May, Sixth Street acquired 10% of the club's TV rights for 207.5 million euros. This would value Sixth Street's additional 15% investment at around €310 million, bringing the US company's overall capital raise to around €517 million. More than enough to fund the club's current spending spree on players.

The club has not disclosed the value of the second sale of the stake in its future TV rights, but a statement says the transaction continues to implement a strategy agreed by members at its general meeting extraordinary in June. "We continue to move forward on our strategy and are pleased to have concluded this additional agreement with Sixth Street, providing us with a significant increase in capital strength," Barca president Joan Laporta said.

"Over the past few weeks, we and Sixth Street have engaged and collaborated with a shared understanding of what we seek to achieve for our organization, and we look forward to our long-term partnership."

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Sixth Street manages over $60 billion and agreed earlier this year to invest €360 million in Real Madrid around the redevelopment of the Santiago Bernabéu stadium.

"FC Barcelona is one of the premier sports organizations in the world, and we are pleased to extend our relationship through this additional investment," said Alan Waxman, co-founder and CEO of Sixth Street.

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"Our flexibility and cross-platform expertise continue to serve executive teams well as they seek to execute highly strategic initiatives."

Separately, Barcelona have also agreed to sell up to 49% of their merchandising and sponsorship business. Earlier this year, the club entered into a new sponsorship and naming rights deal with Spotify.

Barcelona have been struggling financially for several seasons and have been told by La Liga that they need to cut spending to comply with the league's Financial Fair Play rules. Last year, the club had to let Argentine talisman and star Lionel Messi go. Other players have had to defer salaries to control costs. In total, the club suffers from less than 1.35 billion euros in debt.

But that hasn't stopped Barcelona from strengthening their squad after disappointing results in their last campaign. The Catalans signed Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Pablo Torre for a total of £91.6m, brought in Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessié on free transfers and continue to pursue the players.

The Lewandowski deal drew criticism from Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann, who called Barcelona "the only club in the world that has no money but can buy all the players". Now he knows where it came from.

Barca are currently cashing in on their €1.3 billion Espai Barca project which will see the club move to the 60,700 capacity Olympic Stadium for the 2023.24 season. Laporta said it will only be for one season and they will be back at the Nou Camp - albeit with reduced capacity as work continues - for the 2024/25 season.

The Camp Nou redevelopment will see its capacity increase from the current 99,000 to 110,000, including the construction of a roof.

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