Barcelona wriggled out of their latest jam, with La Liga allowing them to register most of their summer signings ahead of Saturday’s season opening game against Rayo Vallecano.
Despite being a reported €1.3 billion in debt, making it beyond impossible for them to make any transfers, the Catalan giants have been carrying on like they could just make their normal, big-money transfers to improve a squad that finished 13 points behind Real Madrid last season.
Somehow, they’ve gotten away with it. New signings Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Franck Kessié, and Andreas Christiansen have all been successfully registered with La Liga, making them eligible to play against Rayo.
Ousmane Dembélé and Sergi Roberto, who signed new contracts this summer and were also in danger of not being registered, have also apparently been approved, leaving Jules Koundé as the lone player out in the cold at the moment.
Ignoring the reality that financial fair play rules left them €144 million below a league-imposed spending limit—the only top-flight Spanish team in that situation—Barca went out and signed Lewandowski for €50 million. They then spent even more to add Raphinha from Leeds, and to bring Koundé over from Sevilla, taking their outgoing transfer expenditures up to €164 million.
Even free transfers like Kessié and Christiansen came over from Milan and Chelsea. There would be no discount shopping for Barcelona, who were intent on driving a Bentley no matter how much their budget said they needed to consider a year or two in a still-luxurious BMW.
Barca’s new board began referring to having “financial levers” to pull, and they sure did pull a lot of them. The club sold off half of its future domestic television rights in two such deals, and sold 49% of Barca Studios in two other deals. Earlier this week, they brought in €100 million from the GDA Luma investment fund for 24.5% of their content arm and production studio.
Barca Studios was only opened last year, around the time that they were unable to register multiple players because they were in violation of financial fair play rules for 2021-22. Leo Messi left, Gerard Pique accepted a pay cut, and everyone thought that maybe this humiliation would shake them into action.
And yet, little appears to have changed. Koundé, who Barcelona spent around €54 million to sign? Not registered! Pique, a club legend who already took a pay cut to help the club in their time of need? Relevo has reported that negotiations over another pay cut have stalled.
By the way, Barcelona is still trying to bring Marcos Alonso in from Chelsea, a situation that seems at an impasse while Frenkie de Jong—who Barca have seemingly wanted to push out the door all summer—weighs up whether he wants to head to London as part of the deal.
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