Barcelona are coming off a hugely successful season in which they won a domestic double and came within a whisker of the UEFA Champions League final. That's a huge positive not just for the club and belief in new coach Hansi Flick, but also president Joan Laporta, who faces club elections at the end of next season. Laporta inherited a disastrous financial situation from his predecessor, Josep Maria Bartomeu, and pursued an aggressive strategy of "levers," many of which involved selling off shares of future revenue streams in exchange for immediate cash injections. Whether this will be good for the club long term remains to be seen, but two LaLiga titles in three seasons and renewed faith in the club suggest that on the pitch, the plan has worked.

That said, Barça are still threading

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