Barcelona mortgages its future on quick resurrection

FC Barcelona’s new French defender Jules Kounde shakes hands with Club’s President Joan Laporta during his presentation ceremony at the Joan Gamper training ground in Sant Joan Despi, near Barcelona, on Monday. (AFP)
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Updated 02 August 2022
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Barcelona mortgages its future on quick resurrection

  • Laporta's board sold off 25% of their Spanish league TV rights for the next 25 years for $679 million
  • They sold a 25% stake of their Barça Studios production hub for another $102 million on Monday

BARCELONA, Spain: Crippled by debt and fielding a team that were no longer among Europe’s elite, Barcelona’s leadership decided there was only one alternative after watching Real Madrid sweep up the major trophies last season.
They chose to double down and spend, spend, spend.
Barcelona will enter the season with immediate hopes of winning after adding striker Robert Lewandowski, defender Jules Koundé and winger Raphinha to an uneven squad composed of promising youngsters and several unwanted players.
But the three signings for more than a combined 160 million euros ($163 million) — making it Europe’s leading spender of the offseason — have come at an even larger cost that will burden the club for the next quarter century.
With Barcelona about to close last season with a financial loss for the fourth straight year and no money to spend on transfers, club president Joan Laporta took the gamble that the only way to save the team and stave off their seemingly unstoppable slide into mediocrity was to mortgage their future.
After receiving the approval of Barcelona’s club members, Laporta’s board sold off 25 percent of its Spanish league TV rights for the next 25 years for 667 million euros ($679 million). The club quickly used that cash to make its splash in the transfer market.
“It’s true that I would have preferred not to have had to sell a percentage of the TV rights,” Laporta said this week from New York, where Barcelona completed their preseason tour of the United States. “But the situation was complicated and required us to be brave and take decisions, because soccer does not wait for anyone and our fans, who are used to winning, deserve a Barça that can compete.”
The Catalan club’s shopping spree may not be over. They sold a 25 percent stake of their Barça Studios production hub for another 100 million euros ($102 million) on Monday.
The club have pledged a third of that much-needed income to new players, a third to savings, and a third to paying off debt that despite efforts to bring it down still stands at 1 billion euros ($1 billion).
The sacrifice of future revenue comes after Barcelona sold the naming rights of Camp Nou. Europe’s largest soccer stadium will bear the name of audio-streaming service Spotify, as will Barcelona’s shirts at the season opener against Rayo Vallecano on Aug. 13.
Laporta, who inherited a debt-ridden club when he returned to power last year, has also remained a firm backer of Madrid president Florentino Pérez’s scheme to establish a Super League.
But not even the Spotify deal and shedding the salaries of Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Philippe Coutinho and Antoine Griezmann for practically nothing in return in recent years proved enough to balance the books.
The mismanagement by previous president Josep Bartomeu, combined with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, left the club saddled with a massive debt of more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.3 billion) and the largest payroll in soccer.
Barcelona’s financial difficulties have, predictably, been accompanied by their team’s fall from grace.
Barcelona haven’t won the league title in three seasons, after having won eight of the previous 11. The team haven’t lifted the European Cup since 2015, when it won the Champions League for the fourth time in a decade. They won nothing last season after Messi left for Paris Saint-Germain.
All told, the once mighty Barcelona have become known for their economic mess, scandals involving Bartomeu despite his denials of wrongdoing, their inability to retain Messi, as well as humiliating defeats, including a historic 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich.
For Laporta’s critics, it was fitting that Barcelona announced the sale of their second package of TV rights while the team were training in Las Vegas ahead of its friendly “clásico” against Madrid, which Barcelona won 1-0. For some, like former England player Gary Neville, auctioning off TV rights smacked of going for broke.
“Barcelona still pursuing the Super League? This is why! A desperate club (1.2 billion pounds) in debt selling future revenue streams to spend on players today in the ‘Hope’ it pays off! Rolling the dice stuff this with a giant of a club,” Neville wrote on Twitter.
Laporta argues that he had no choice: The alternative was only more losing, fewer fans and dwindling income.
Pressing home the need for the unprecedented measures in June, Laporta told fellow club members that when he took charge after winning club elections in March 2021 the team was nearly bankrupt.
“We couldn’t meet the payroll. We were clinically dead. We restructured the debt, reduced spending and slashed the player payroll substantially, but it still was not enough,” Laporta said. “By finding new revenues and sponsors we went from being dead to the intensive care unit, and now we can finally get back to living a normal life (after selling the TV rights).”
Still, even in the most favorable analysis, the decision is painful.
“From a financial point of view, it is never good news when you sell assets,” economist Marc Ciria, who in 2015 formed part of an unsuccessful presidential run by Laporta but now has no connection to the executive, told The Associated Press.
“Barcelona have spent (nearly) 125 years acquiring patrimony, and TV rights are one of the few assets that is guaranteed to increase in value. But it is also clear that Barcelona, for its status, cannot afford to have another season like the last one.”
Ciria calculates that, not even including inflation, Barcelona have sacrificed at least 1 billion euros ($1 billion), starting with 41 million euros ($42 million) this season, in future TV revenues in exchange of 670 million euros ($684 million) now.
But, for Ciria, the greatest threat to the sustainability of Barcelona is the bloated player salaries. He calculates that just to break even this season the club would need to reduce its salary load to 450 million euros ($457 million). It stood at 518 million euros ($526 million) before the latest signings, which also include free agents Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen.
Barcelona is also under pressure to reduce their salary load so it can meet the Spanish league’s financial rules and be able to register their new players so they can play games.
Dani Alves, Adama Traoré and Luuk de Jong have all left after finishing their deals, but of its players under contract it has an agreement to transfer Óscar Mingueza to Celta Vigo and has loaned out Clement Lenglet and Francisco Trincão.
Barcelona want Frenkie de Jong to accept a transfer to Manchester United or take a pay cut. Martin Braithwaite, Samuel Umtiti, and Riqui Puig were all left off Barcelona’s squad for the trip to the United States and the club want them gone.
Last season, Barcelona flopped out of the Champions League’s group phase for the first time in two decades. They finished a distant second in Spain to Madrid, which also won the European Cup to only increase the frustration of Barcelona supporters.
The additions of a world-class scorer in Lewandowski, a top young center back in Koundé and the flare of Raphinha should provide coach Xavi Hernández with what he needs to improve a squad featuring Spain midfielders Pedri González (19 years old) and Gavi Páez (17).
But one year after Messi’s wife handed him a tissue as he wept while saying farewell to the club he helped make great, Barcelona are at a crossroads where it appears the only two ways forward are renewal or decline.


Top racers lined up for Tabuk Toyota Rally 2024 from King Khalid City

Updated 08 May 2024
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Top racers lined up for Tabuk Toyota Rally 2024 from King Khalid City

  • Series leader Yazeed Al-Rajhi from Saudi Arabia heads field in his Toyota Hilux

TABUK: The Tabuk Toyota Rally 2024, round two of the Saudi Toyota Championship, will start from King Khalid City in Tabuk on Thursday afternoon, with most of the leading racers confirmed for the starting lineups.

The Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation has laid on a challenging three-day desert route for the entrants, which include cars, motorcycles and quads, with approximately 419 kilometers to be timed against the clock.

Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi has an eight-point overall lead in the drivers’ championship, courtesy of his and Timo Gottshalk’s victory during round one in Hail.

Dark Horse OT3 driver Saleh Al-Saif is his nearest rival with Dania Akeel holding third place after making the switch from the Challenger category to driving an Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux alongside Al-Rajhi in the Ultimate P section. Al-Saif’s co-driver Nasser Al-Kuwari trails Gottschalk by eight points in the co-drivers’ championship.

With Pal Lonyai and Ahmed Al-Kuwari not competing in Tabuk, the door is open for German driver Annett Quandt to climb the leader board. She currently holds sixth in the overall standings and switches from a Yamaha YXZ to drive a Can-Am Maverick X3 on this occasion. Her closest challengers in the overall drivers’ championship are Hamad Al-Harbi, Abdulaziz Al-Yaeesh and Maha Al-Hameli.

Al-Rajhi has had it all his own way so far in the Ultimate P category, while Al-Yaeesh arrives in Tabuk with a six-point cushion over Faris Al-Moshna in the Ultimate class. Khaled and Ahmed Al-Shammeri currently hold third and fourth places.

Al-Saif leads the absent Lonyai by seven points in Challenger, with Quandt, Al-Harbi and Al-Hameli looking to snatch the initiative from the OT3 driver. Hamza Bakhashab and Abdullah Al-Haydan are also registered in the category this weekend.

In the absence of the SSV category-leading Ahmed Al-Kuwari, Moaaz Hariri — who is a single point behind the Qatari — has the opportunity to pull clear of his nearest rivals. The Shegawi Racing duo of Esraa Al-Dkheil and Abdullah Al-Shegawi should provide stiff competition in their Can-Ams, although Waleed Al-Dakheel and Orjwan Ammar are also on hand for the battle.

Muneef Al-Shammeri heads to the start line with a 10-point lead over Sufian Al-Omer in the Stock category for series-production cross-country vehicles. Majed Al-Thunayyan is third, a further four points adrift in the standings.

MX Ride Dubai’s Mohammed Al-Balooshi wheels out his Husqvarna Rally Bike this weekend in a four-motorcycle team alongside his closest title rival Abdullah Al-Shatti, brother Sultan and fellow Emirati Marwan Al-Rahmani. Al-Balooshi holds a 10-point cushion over his Kuwaiti team-mate with Saudi Arabia rider Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera holding third and Hamdan Al-Ali and the absent Abdullah Abu Aisheh rounding off the top five.

Haitham Al-Tuwaijri (25 points) heads an eight-strong quad field and will defend a five-point cushion over Hani Al-Noumesi in the standings. Recent Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura winner Abdulaziz Al-Shayban is third on 16 points, three ahead of Abdulaziz Al-Atawi.

Thursday will see the ceremonial start at King Khalid Sport City precede the opening Prologue stage in Tabuk that will determine the starting order for the first of two desert selective sections on Friday morning.


Soccer or football, the world’s most popular sport has its own day for fans to celebrate — May 25

Updated 08 May 2024
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Soccer or football, the world’s most popular sport has its own day for fans to celebrate — May 25

  • The 193-member General Assembly adopted the resolution by consensus with a bang of the gavel by its president, Dennis Francis
  • On May 25, the resolution “invites” all nations, UN bodies, international organizations, academia, civil society and the private sector to observe World Football Day

UNITED NATIONS: Soccer fans around the world will now have a day to celebrate the world’s most popular sport every year — May 25.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution Tuesday proclaiming May 25 as World Football Day. The sport is called football outside of the US.

The day marks the 100th anniversary of the first international soccer tournament in history with the representation of all regions which took place on May 25, 1924 during the summer Olympic games held in Paris, according to the resolution.

The 193-member General Assembly adopted the resolution by consensus with a bang of the gavel by its president, Dennis Francis, to applause from diplomats in the assembly chamber. It was co-sponsored by more than 160 countries.

Libya’s UN Ambassador Taher El-Sonni, who introduced the resolution, told the assembly, “Football or soccer as others call it is the number one game played and followed around the globe.”

But he stressed that soccer is more than just a game played by all ages on streets, in villages, schools and courtyards for fun and in competitions.

Because of its “unparalleled position” in the world of sports, El-Sonni said, “football serves as a universal language spoken across the globe, cutting across national, cultural and socio-economic barriers.”

He said the game has become “a pivotal platform” championing gender equality and social inclusion, “a common ground where individuals from varying backgrounds converge, promoting mutual understanding, tolerance, respect and solidarity.”

The resolution acknowledges “the global reach of football and its impact in various spheres, including commerce, peace and diplomacy, and recognizing that football creates a space for cooperation.”

It also recognizes “the fundamental role” of soccer’s international governing body, FIFA, and the important role of regional and national soccer federations, as well as relevant associations, in p romoting the game.

The resolution encourages all countries to support soccer and other sports as a tool to promote peace, development and the empowerment of women and girls. And it also encourages countries to adopt policies and programs to promote football and other sports and physical activities.

On May 25, the resolution “invites” all nations, UN bodies, international organizations, academia, civil society and the private sector to observe World Football Day in line with national priorities “and to disseminate the advantages of football for all, including through educational and public awareness-raising activities.”


Top-seeded Celtics, Thunder win second round playoff series openers

Updated 08 May 2024
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Top-seeded Celtics, Thunder win second round playoff series openers

  • Boston were in complete control for most of the game, holding a double-digit lead through the second half to close out an emphatic win at the TD Garden
  • Oklahoma City, who have an average age of just over 23, are the youngest team to win a second round playoff game

LOS ANGELES: The top-seeded Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder rolled to convincing victories in their opening NBA playoff series on Tuesday.

Eastern Conference top seeds Boston laid down a marker with a 120-95 rout of the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers at the TD Garden.

Oklahoma City, meanwhile, were made to work harder by Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks before finally pulling clear to seal a 117-95 victory in their Western Conference semifinal series opener.

In Boston, Jaylen Brown scored 32 points while Derrick White added 25, including seven three-pointers, in an emphatic win for the Celtics, who are chasing a record 18th NBA championship.

Boston were in complete control for most of the game, holding a double-digit lead through the second half to close out an emphatic win at the TD Garden.

Boston star Jayson Tatum added 18 points but had an off-night shooting-wise, making just 7-of-19 from the field.

Donovan Mitchell led the scoring for Cleveland with 33 points, with Evan Mobley adding 17 and Darius Garland 14.

Brown said the Celtics’ defense had laid the foundation for the win.

“It starts with defense, we wanted to set the tone on defense and we kept them under 100 (points),” Brown told TNT television.

“But we feel like we’ve got an answer for everything so we just play the game the right way, and see what they want to take away and then we play after that.”

Boston got off to a flying start, jumping out to an early 12-2 first quarter lead before a Cleveland rally saw them edge into a 23-21 lead after Mitchell’s running three-pointer.

But Boston responded swiftly, reclaiming the lead immediately and never allowing Cleveland to get their noses in front thereafter.

After taking a 10-point lead into halftime, Boston kept the pressure up in the second half, stretching out to a 26-point lead in the fourth quarter as they romped to a comfortable win. Game 2 in the series takes place in Boston on Thursday.

In Oklahoma City, the Thunder and the Mavericks fought a nip-and-tuck duel before the No.1 seeds pulled away decisively in the fourth quarter.

Trailing by nine points at halftime, Dallas rallied in the third quarter to get within one point at 66-65.

But the youthful Thunder lineup began to find their range, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander adding 10 points in the third quarter to help OKC build a 10-point cushion heading into the fourth quarter.

Oklahoma City’s barrage of scoring continued in the fourth with Jalen Williams adding 10 points as the Thunder outscored their visitors 28-16 to seal victory by a 22-point margin.

Gilgeous-Alexander led the OKC scoring, finishing with 29 points, nine rebounds and nine assists while Chet Holmgren added 19 points and Williams 18.

Kyrie Irving led Dallas with 20 points while Luka Doncic, struggling with a sore knee, finished with 19 after shooting six-of-19 from the field.

Oklahoma City, who have an average age of just over 23, are the youngest team to win a second round playoff game and were the youngest team to win a postseason series after sweeping the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round.

“We don’t worry about all the statistics and the stats, and how young we are,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after the win. “We just want to win basketball games at a high level and that’s what we focus on.

“We try to get that done every night and tonight we did so.”

Doncic said the Mavericks would need to improve dramatically for game two taking place in Oklahoma City on Thursday.

The Slovenian star brushed off questions about his own shooting performance.

“Who cares? We lost. We’ve just got to move onto the next one. I’ve got to be better, we’ve got to be better,” Doncic said.

“They’re a great defensive team and a great offensive team, so it’s not going to be easy at all. We’re going to have to play very good basketball, focused basketball, for 48 minutes.”


PGA Championship invites 7 LIV players to get top 100 in the world

Updated 08 May 2024
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PGA Championship invites 7 LIV players to get top 100 in the world

  • The group of LIV players includes Patrick Reed, whose tie for 12th in the Masters moved him inside the top 100
  • The field has 21 club professionals — 20 from the PGA Professional Championship last week, and Michael Block, who qualified by finishing among the top 15 last year at Oak Hill

NEW YORK: The PGA Championship officially has Tiger Woods in a field released Tuesday that includes invitations to seven players from Saudi-funded LIV Golf, giving the major the entire top 100 in the world ranking at Valhalla next week.

The PGA of America strives to have the top 100 in the world to maintain its reputation for having the strongest field of the four majors, although it is not part of the criteria.

Instead, the PGA uses a catch-all category of “special invitations.” The group of LIV players includes Patrick Reed, whose tie for 12th in the Masters moved him inside the top 100. He is at No. 92, and the invitation keeps alive his streak of playing every major since the 2014 Masters.

The PGA Championship returns to Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky, for the fourth time on May 16-19. Rory McIlroy won at Valhalla the last time it was there in 2014. The course is best known for Woods winning a playoff over Bob May in 2000 for his third straight major.

Joaquin Niemann, who won the Australian Open in December and has two LIV Golf wins this year, already received an invitation. The surprise was Talor Gooch announcing in an X post on Monday that he had received an invitation.

It was a sign the PGA of America’s selection committee was looking at LIV results on their own, as Gooch doesn’t play much outside the Saudi league. He won three times on LIV in 2023 and won the season points list.

Other invitations went to Dean Burmester, Lucas Herbert, Adrian Meronk, all of them inside the top 100 in the world. The seventh invitation went to David Puig, the 22-year-old from Spain who is No. 106 in the world ranking. Puig has finished in the top 10 in six of his last seven tournaments on the Asian Tour, including two wins.

LIV will be represented by 16 players, down from 18 a year ago.

There might have been one more, except British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen turned down his invitation. Oosthuizen, who is No. 125 in the world, won twice late last year in South Africa in tournaments co-sanctioned by the European tour.

His manager, Carlos Rodriguez, said in a text message that Oosthuizen already had some personal commitments.

The LIV group includes defending champion Brooks Koepka, who goes for a fourth PGA Championship title. He is the only active LIV player to win a major.

Kerry Haigh, the championship director for the PGA of America, has said he would consider deserving players from tours around the world. Invitations were given to Tim Widing of Sweden, who has won consecutive tournaments on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Another invitation went to Kazuma Kobori, a 22-year-old born in Japan who now plays under the New Zealand flag. He has won three times this year in the Webex Players Series on the PGA Tour of Australasia.

The field has 21 club professionals — 20 from the PGA Professional Championship last week, and Michael Block, who qualified by finishing among the top 15 last year at Oak Hill.

The PGA is keeping two spots open in case the winners of the Wells Fargo Championship and the Myrtle Beach Classic are not already eligible. Only four players in the 69-man field at the Wells Fargo Championship have not qualified. The first alternate is Doug Ghim.


Hummels stuns Mbappe and PSG to take Dortmund to Champions League final

Updated 08 May 2024
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Hummels stuns Mbappe and PSG to take Dortmund to Champions League final

  • Hummels struck five minutes into the second half at the Parc des Princes and PSG were unable to muster a response
  • PSG have still never won the trophy despite all the money invested by their Qatari owners since the 2011 takeover, and there will be no dream send-off for Mbappe

PARIS: Mats Hummels headed in the only goal as Borussia Dortmund stunned Kylian Mbappe and Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League semifinal second leg on Tuesday, winning 1-0 on the night and advancing 2-0 on aggregate to next month’s final at Wembley.

Hummels struck five minutes into the second half at the Parc des Princes and PSG were unable to muster a response, the home side all out of luck as they hit the woodwork four times in total.

Dortmund, who sit fifth in the German Bundesliga, were never expected to go so far and will be underdogs in the June 1 showpiece regardless of whether they face their old rivals Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, who meet on Wednesday.

It will be their first final since 2013 when, remarkably, the match was also played at Wembley and Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund lost to Bayern.

Hummels played in that final and here, 11 years later, he was the hero as Dortmund built on the advantage given to them by Niclas Fuellkrug’s goal in the first leg.

“It’ll take us a bit of time to realize that, but we’re looking forward to it extremely,” Dortmund coach Edin Terzic told broadcaster Amazon Prime of getting to the final.

“We did it somehow, making it to London.”

The story of this semifinal, however, is as much about PSG’s failure in another crunch knockout tie in the competition.

They have still never won the trophy despite all the money invested by their Qatari owners since the 2011 takeover, and there will be no dream send-off for Mbappe.

He will leave when his contract expires after this season and had been hoping to play his last game for the club in the June 1 final.

Instead PSG will be left to reflect on how they failed to get their hands on the biggest trophy of all during Mbappe’s seven years at his hometown team.

“We were not clinical enough. They scored two goals, one from a corner and one from a long ball. We created lots more chances, many more than them, but we didn’t take them,” PSG captain Marquinhos told Canal Plus.

“We got so close and we wanted to get to the final. But we had to win tonight and be more clinical, and we were not.”

PSG’s last two semifinal appearances both came during the pandemic, meaning this was the first time they had hosted a match at this stage of a European competition with fans in 29 years, since losing to AC Milan in 1995.

Luis Enrique’s team had won 2-0 at home against Dortmund in the group stage and were safe in the knowledge that a repeat of that performance would be enough.

The PSG coach made one major selection decision, dropping Bradley Barcola and bringing in Portuguese striker Goncalo Ramos. That meant moving Mbappe from the middle onto the left wing.

Dortmund would have been bracing themselves for an onslaught from kick-off, but that did not transpire.

Mbappe took only seven minutes to produce his first attempt, yet his volley was easily saved by Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.

The hosts had most of the possession but struggled to get Mbappe into the game, the France captain often looking isolated on the wing.

In fact it was Dortmund who had the best chance of the first half, when Karim Adeyemi led a counterattack before seeing his shot saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.

It felt as though the hosts needed to change something or risk going out with a whimper.

They should have been ahead two minutes after the restart, when Ramos touched on a ball driven into the box by Mbappe, but Warren Zaire-Emery contrived to hit the post from close range.

That was to prove crucial as Dortmund struck moments later.

PSG cheaply conceded a corner, and Julian Brandt’s delivery from the Dortmund right was headed in by Hummels.

Ramos swept a shot over on the hour mark before Nuno Mendes became the second PSG player to strike the right-hand post, this time with a powerful shot from distance.

It was starting to look as if it would not be PSG’s night, and Luis Enrique realized he had to act as he sent on Barcola and Marco Asensio for Ramos and Fabian Ruiz, moving Mbappe through the middle.

Dortmund sent on an extra defender in the hulking Niklas Suele and they withstood everything PSG threw at them while also being helped by the frame of the goal.

Kobel turned Mbappe’s shot onto the bar on 86 minutes and Vitinha also rattled the woodwork but Dortmund hung on to book their date in London.