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La Liga rejected BarcelonaHis efforts to land his five summer signings in a huge blow ahead of the new season.
Despite being in the midst of serious financial problems, the Blaugrana are still incredibly active in the transfer market and have brought in the likes of Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Rafinha, Robert Lewandowski and Jules Conte.
Their summer spree has baffled many, who can’t understand how they managed to gobble up the cash given their circumstances.
But according to The mirror, it emerged that La Liga has blocked their attempts to introduce their new players to the new system because they need more money.
🚨 La Liga REJECTED Barcelona’s attempts to sign up their new players.
Laporta has said the wage bill needs to come down before the likes of Lewandowski and Rafinha can play.
What a mess.
(Source: @tariqpanja)
— Broadcast News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) August 6, 2022
It is being reported tonight that La Liga have rejected Barca’s attempts to sign their plethora of new players. Laporta told us that the salary was currently at 551 million euros and should have been reduced, instead it has been increased. The assets sold were not enough. More future revenue now on the block to sign players
— tariq panja (@tariqpanja) August 5, 2022
While Lewandowski was juggling balls at the now Spotify Camp Nou, La Liga were telling Barcelona they could not sign him or others unless they raised funds by selling further assets and cutting their payroll. 🎪
— tariq panja (@tariqpanja) August 5, 2022
Furthermore, Sergi Roberto and Ousmane Dembele – the two players who signed new contracts on lesser terms after their deals expired – are also currently unable to register.
Barcelona could not register (for La Liga matches). Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski and Jules Kounde.
However, in addition, as Ousmane Dembele & Sergi Roberto’s contracts expired and then renewed, they have not been registered.
— Kristian Sturt (@FootieWriter) August 5, 2022
It’s a familiar situation for the Catalan outfit as last year the club needed the likes of Gerard Pique to take significant pay cuts so new signings Memphis Depay, Eric Garcia and Ray Manai could play.
It probably won’t be enough, however, and Barca have said they need to pull a fourth “financial lever” – according to The Athlete.
The third lever arrived earlier this week when they agreed to sell 25 per cent of Barca Studios to Socios.com, for a fee of €100m (£83.7m).
It should be noted that there are many reports about what the sale of the 4th lever might involve. Some report a sale of 49.9 percent of all BLM and some report as little as 49.9 percent of the Barcelona studios.
Barcelona will know who to explore based on their finances.
— Kristian Sturt (@FootieWriter) August 5, 2022
In addition, they sold 25 percent of their television rights over the next 25 years to Sixth Street, an American company.
Those deals are believed to have raised €767 million, but their next step could be to sell 49 percent of their production company.
Speaking at Lewandowski’s unveiling on Friday, chairman Joan Laporta said: “We have done our job well and we believe we meet all the requirements. All the documents have already been sent and we are waiting for a response from La Liga.
“There could be some difference, but as we understand there will be no problems because we have met everything [all of the requirements] and they will be able to register the footballers. If this is not the case, we are ready to apply a quarter [economic] lever and we will do it.”
Barcelona kicks off the new season at home to Rayo Vallecano on August 13.
