Barcelona crisis! - La Liga bans Barca from signing players

Jacque Talbot

• Updated: 3 Mar 2023 15:11 GMT
• 3 min read

Barcelona will need to raise £178million from selling players to be able to spend in the summer transfer window, the club have been told by La Liga chief Javier Tebas.

The Catalans’ have had a string of financial issues recently - and now they have been dealt a massive blow through the executive, who called their behaviour ‘questionable’.

Tebas said at the Financial Times' Business of Football summit: “As of today, Barcelona doesn't have any room in its budget to spend in the upcoming transfer window. 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.

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“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.”

Laporta had called for calm

It comes after Barca president Joan Laporta said that the club was in a strong position, amid reports that they were struggling, while he also vowed to cut £150m from the wage bill, meaning that selling players wouldn’t be needed.

Despite the well-documented financial issues, the club spent big in the summer of 2022.

The like of Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde all came in, amounting to a £105m net spend. Barca countered this by triggering several economic levers, such as their TV rights and stadium name.

But the side are still in debt by £1 billion. Their predicament was exasperated by their missing out on the Champions League, plus their Europa League defeat via Manchester United.