The crisis over player registrations does not stop at FC Barcelona. For the fourth consecutive summer, the culé team has had problems registering the players incorporated in LaLiga. All this began in 2020 with the arrival of Covid-19, which generated serious financial problems in all clubs worldwide and which, at the moment, the Blaugrana board has not finished resolving.
Since then, every year the Blaugrana entity has had to 'juggle' at an economic and sporting level to be able to have all its players registered in the local competition. And the 'hell' does not end this year, because the team suffered to register Iñigo Martínez, Casadó, Pablo Torre and Pau Víctor. However, Flick will be able to have the majority of his squad available to debut against Valencia on August 18, with the exceptions of the injured plus Dani Olmo, who is not yet fit to play; Fermin, who is still on holiday, and Vitor Roque, who seems to be close to leaving the club.
A problem that 'was born' in 2020
The coronavirus pandemic generated major problems worldwide and, inevitably, influenced the clubs' economy. Therefore, the first problems began to be reflected in the 2021/22 season, when Memphis Depay and Eric García were registered after Gerard Piqué deferred his salary so that the team did not exceed the financial 'fair play'. Later, captains such as Busquets and Jordi Alba had to do the same to make the registration of Sergio 'Kun' Agüero possible.
For the 2022 winter transfer market, the club was able to sign Brazilian Dani Alves after the loss of Agüero, who was forced to give up his second year of contract after being diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmia in October 2021. That December he retired from professional football so as not to compromise his health.
In the 2022/23 season, one of the most notable cases was that of Jules Koundé. The Blaugrana managed to sign the Frenchman after the first two LaLiga matches by not complying with the financial fair play rules. This happened after Barça gained salary space with the loan of Samuel Umtiti to Lecce and was forced to register Pablo Torre as a reserve team player.
The 'levers' that have saved Barça
In the summer of 2022, Lewanwoski, Christensen, Marcos Alonso, Kessié and Raphinha were able to be registered, after the club activated three of the famous 'levers'. These were the sale of 10% of its LaLiga television rights to Sixth Street in June; the sale of an additional 15% of its LaLiga television rights to the same company and the sale of 24.5% of Barça Studios to the company Socios.com for 100 million euros.
The 2023/24 season began with problems registering Iñigo Martínez, who could only be registered for that season despite having two signed. The defender came in at the last minute due to Eric García's loan to Girona. Another player that the Catalan team had problems with was Vitor Roque, who joined in the winter transfer market of 2024 due to Gavi's injury. This was possible thanks to article 77 of LaLiga, which allows the use of 80% of the salary of a player injured for more than four months to free up wages and give it to another player.
This same mechanism has been used this year to register Iñigo, taking advantage of the fact that Ronald Araújo will miss much of the first half of the season due to an injury to the hamstring tendon in his right thigh. Barcelona and the president, Joan Laporta, had to resort to personal guarantees last summer to create a salary margin and be able to register Joao Cancelo and Joao Félix. The latter was registered with a salary of 400,000 euros, but LaLiga's Economic Control valued his contract at four million and, finally, that was the amount that the Blaugrana entity had to assume. Without a doubt, a problem that seems to never end for the Barça team.