Spanish La Liga side Barcelona is still to register any new players before this weekend’s La Liga opener with Rayo Vallecano. Barca has been battling severe financial issues, which need to be addressed to comply with La Liga’s strict financial regulations.
In effect that has meant the Catalan giants have sold off huge amounts of their future income to comply and register new players. That includes striker Robert Lewandowski and forward Raphinha. Lewandowski joined them from Bayern Munich while Brazilian Raphinha joined from Leeds.
They also bought defenders Jules Kounde and Andreas Christensen and midfielder Franck Kessie. However, Barcelona is still to satisfy La Liga and is now working on activating what is being referred to as a fourth financial lever a significant stake in their Barca Studios commercial arm, to comply.
In addition, long-serving defender Gerard Pique has taken a pay cut. The league La Liga believe these changes will allow Barcelona to start registering new players, although there is a feeling in the league this may be done on an individual basis rather than all at once.
Barcelona’s financial strife is one of the reasons for the uncertainty over the future of Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong.