Barcelona have confirmed the completion of their sale of VIP seats inside the new Camp Nou, which they insist will allow them to secure La Liga registrations for Dani Olmo and Pau Victor.
As Olmo and Victor's previous registrations approached their ends on December 31, Barcelona struck a deal to sell a section of seats for a reported 120m, which would have given them the financial freedom needed to re-register the two players before the deadline.
Barcelona claimed they submitted evidence of the sale to La Liga before Olmo and Victor's registrations expired, but that argument has been rejected by league officials, who blocked re-registrations for the pair.
An appeal has since been made to the Spanish government, who awarded both Olmo and Victor temporary registrations while they examine the case.
Publicly, Barcelona have now finalised the seat sale, releasing a statement stressing their compliance with league rules in the attempt to raise the required funds for Olmo and Victor's registrations.
"FC Barcelona announces the sale of VIP seats at the Spotify Camp Nou," a statement read. "The Club has been working on the operation over recent months and it ultimately proved key for returning to compliance with LaLiga's financial fair play rules.
"The sales model for these VIP seats Personal Seat License (PSL) represents a change in approach to how hospitality product sales are managed, and is more in line with trends already implemented by other sporting organisations worldwide, particularly in the United States of America. For FC Barcelona, the operation means the creation of a new intangible asset based on this new business model, whereby investors purchase a VIP seat, after which they can either sell it or use it for themselves.
"This means any risk to the Club during the sales process for these types of seats is reduced, as income is guaranteed for the entire period of the sale, and the investors pay i) upfront for the license to use the seat throughout the duration of the contact, and ii) for the price of the VIP seat per season.
"The Club has concluded operations for 475 seats for a maximum of 30 years with two different investors from the Middle East, a region where these types of products are highly sought after. At the investors' request, these operations contain confidentiality clauses that aim to preserve the investor groups' competitive advantage in the hospitality and VIP products sector. This approach was also adopted with other Club financial operations (such as the funding for Espai Barca). Both sets of investor groups were subject to a mandatory review beforehand, with both receiving positive reports from the Club's Compliance Department and Economic Commission.
"The relevant documents for these agreements were sent to LaLiga prior to midnight on 31 December 2024.
"The benefits raised from granting permission to make use of this new product will enable the Club to provide the Espai Barca investors a significant proportion of the amount of the debt incurred for the Spotify Camp Nou ahead of the end of the first scheduled payment period during the 2025/26 season."
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