Barcelona’s financial woes continue as the beleaguered club wrestle with Financial Fair Play regulations and a LaLiga salary cap in trying to sign their talisman Lionel Messi over a supposedly new two-year deal that has allegedly been agreed to by both parties.
However the deal cannot be inked due to Barca’s grave financial issues, which see them around €1billion in debt and 40% over their La Liga wage cap.
And in the latest twist, the report has emerged that not only are Barca not able to put a new contract in writing for Messi, but they are also unable to make their new summer signings – Sergio Aguero, Eric Garcia, Memphis Depay and Emerson Royal – official. Three of the four were snapped up for free.
The sticky point is that, due to being over their La Liga salary cap, Barcelona can only reinvest 25% of any incoming money on new signings.
That means they cannot register Messi’s new contract unless the Argentine’s deal is only worth 25% of any incomings, and that also applies to the new signings.
The crunch is that none of their new signings can be signed until they have made enough money or reduced the wage bill enough for the new deals to only be worth 25% of incoming cash, or failing that, at the point at which the wage cap drops below the required level.
That could be a huge problem for Barca who, according to Zach Lowry, must drop their wage bill by around €200million to get the deals done.
On their end, Barca have begun to make a start, offloading the likes of Francisco Trincao, Konrad, Junior Firpo, Jean-Claire Todibo and Matheus Fernandes.
But at this point, those exits are a mere drop in the proverbial ocean, and Barca will have to offload more than one of their top earners if they want to keep Messi and make those other new deals official.