Barcelona have confirmed the completion of the 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 came to an end on December 31, Barcelona struck a deal to sell part of the seats for a reported 120 million euroswhich would give them the financial freedom needed to re-register two players before the deadline.
Barcelona claimed it had submitted evidence of the sale to La Liga before Olmo and Victor’s registrations expired, but that argument was rejected by league officials, who blocked re-registrations for the pair.
Since then, an appeal has been made to the Spanish government, which granted provisional registrations to both Olmo and Victor while investigating the case.
Publicly, Barcelona they have now finalized the sale of the seats, releasing a statement emphasizing their compliance with league rules in an attempt to raise the necessary funds for the registrations of Olmo and Victor.
“FC Barcelona announces the sale of VIP seats at the Spotify Camp Nou,” reads the press release. “The club has been working on the operation in recent months and it has ultimately proved to be key to regaining compliance with LaLiga’s Financial Fair Play rules.
“The sales model for these VIP seats – the Personal Seat License (PSL) – represents a change in the approach to managing the sale of hospitality products and is more in line with the trends already implemented by other sports organizations around the world, especially in the United States. For FC Barcelona, the operation means creating new intangible assets based on this new business model, whereby investors buy a VIP seat, after which they can sell it or use it for themselves.
“This means that any risk for the Club during the sales process for these types of seats is reduced, because the income is guaranteed for the entire sales period, and investors pay i) in advance for the license to use the seats during the contact period, and ii) for the price of the VIP seats per the season.
“The club has concluded deals for 475 seats for a maximum of 30 years with two different investors from the Middle East, a region where such products are in high demand. At the request of the investors, these deals contain confidentiality clauses aimed at preserving the competitive advantage of investor groups in the sector hospitality and VIP products of the investor group were previously subject to a mandatory review, and both received positive reports from the club’s Compliance Department and the Economic Commission.
“The relevant documents for these contracts were sent to LaLiga before midnight on 31 December 2024.
“The benefits obtained by granting permission to use this new product will allow the Club to secure to Espai Barca investors a significant part of the amount of debt incurred for Spotify Camp Nou before the end of the first planned payment period during the 2025/26 seasons.”
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