Laporta insists Barcelona DON'T need to sell players

Stuart Telford

• 10 Feb 2023 16:59 GMT
• 3 min read

La Liga have ordered Barcelona to slash €200 million from their wage bill next summer, but club president Joan Laporta insists the Blaugrana don't need to sell players to balance the books.

Barca's financial dire straits have been well publicised. They were €1.35 billion in debt when they lost club legend Lionel Messi on a free transfer to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2021, and although Laporta has activated 'financial levers', they are not out of the woods yet.

Laporta agreed to the sale of a percentage of future revenues for things like TV and merchandising in return for liquid capital in the here and now, and spent €150m of that last summer on Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde.

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But their group stage exit from this season's Champions League has compounded their troubles, and the club now need to cut a cool €200m from their wage bill in order to satisfy La Liga financial regulations.

Reports from Spain suggest that Lewandowski and Ousmane Dembele are the only two payers not for sale, with Barca particularly keen to cash in on Frenkie de Jong and Ansu Fati, but Laporta insists there will not be a fire sale at Campo Nou next summer.

Laporta: 'we don't need to sell'

"We don't need to sell any important players," he told a press round at Camp Nou. "We will reinforce the squad.

"It's not strictly necessary to sell a top player this summer but the market always opens possibilities. It depends on the will of each player. But we're not obliged to sell because we think there are other solutions."

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Sergio Busquets is expected to leave for the MLS or the Middle East, taking a significant salary with him, while Gerard Pique's mid-season retirement also eased a significant load, but shedding players isn't Laporta's only solution.

"We'll try to get the league to relax the rules that make it impossible for us to be competitive with other rivals," he said.

"Fair play is more benevolent in other championships. We can't register players because of the salary limit set by the league. We've adapted, but we'll try to keep fighting."