If the rumour mill was to be believed then all is hunky dory at the Spotify Camp Nou.
The fact that the naming rights for one of football's most iconic stadiums was sold for the very first time this year should go some way to telling you that everything isn't rosy at Barcelona, in fact the sale of the naming rights goes along with the selling off of 25 per cent of their TV rights to private equity fund Sixth Street Investments (which has since been claimed to have been artificially inflated) and 49.95 per cent of Barça Licensing & Merchandising (BLM), the company owned by Barcelona that is responsible for negotiating licences and merchandising, to allow them to realise some cash quickly.
Over £1bn in debt, much of it having been due in the short term, much restructuring has had to be undertaken through new loans, the selling of parts of the business to third parties, sponsorship deals and seeking voluntary reductions in the salaries of some of their biggest stars.
