Barcelona will have to raise £178million from selling current players if they are to have any chance of entering the transfer market this summer, the club has been informed.
The Catalan giants‘ financial issues are well-documented, and they now face a race to procure the necessary funds in time to have any impact on the upcoming summer window.
This latest update comes less than a month after Barca president Joan Laporta claimed the club was in a strong position, vowed to cut £150m from the wage bill, and stated that no player sales would be necessary.
The club previously spent big in the summer of 2022 on the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde, despite seemingly being hamstrung by monetary issues.
However, they triggered several economic levers, including their TV rights, in order to be able to afford the costly outlay, but still are thought to be in debt to the tune of around £1billion.
Barcelona are told they must raise £178m from player sales before making any more signings
Barca spent big last summer on the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde
Failure to stay in the Champions League, as well as being knocked out of the Europa League by Manchester United, tightened an already tight screw at the club, with Barca thought to be relying on European competitions as a source of revenue.
‘As of today, Barcelona doesn’t have any room in its budget to spend in the upcoming transfer window,’ LaLiga chief Javier Tebas said on Thursday in London, at the Financial Times’ Business of Football summit.
‘Barcelona has been involved in questionable behaviour which has had an impact on LaLiga and we are acting accordingly. We have ruled that they can no longer sign more players.
‘They sold off £620m (€700m) in TV rights and tried to find different ways to solve the situation but they won’t be able to do that next season. We have strict economic controls. At the end of each window, we tell all the clubs in LaLiga what they can spend.
‘In the case of Barcelona, they have to drop from spending on wages and transfers from £532m to £399m (€650m to €450m), so it’s a budget of minus £177m (€200m).
‘They have to reduce their investment in players and we have encouraged them to sell players because, for every amount they raise in sales, they can spend 40 per cent of that.’
The good news for Barcelona is that there are several players in the squad who are of interest to other sides.
LaLiga chief…