Barcelona mortgages its future on quick resurrection

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.