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Barça will wait until the last minute to register the new signings

BarcelonaThe regulations of fair play finance of the League has become so famous that this summer people were not wondering who Barça would sign, but how the club would go about registering the footballer in question. The Blaugrana club has made a shower of millions through the famous “leverage” – that is, the sale of assets to obtain extraordinary income – but, even so, it may not be enough for the new additions to have a license for playing. A mess of numbers and projections that moves halfway between objective data and subjective interpretations, and that won’t be fully resolved until a few hours before the competition begins. Barça plays its first official match on Saturday the 13th at 9pm, against Rayo Vallecano.

Mateu Alemany and Jordi Cruyff, the two strong men in the football area, made an outline of the sports planning for this 2022/23 season in February, when the winter market closed. Of course, everything was wet paper waiting for the club to obtain the extraordinary income to be able to carry out all the operations. They have finally arrived: Barça has sold 25% of the television rights of the League and 25% of Barça Studios and has raised more than 600 million in just two months. The figures are extraordinary, but they are diluted when you take into account the deficit that the club was running. A slab that prevented spending money in the last two summer markets and that, in this one, still makes the sports management suffer.

Barça has already sent all the documentation to Madrid

As of this week, the ball is on the roof of Javier Tebas, the president of the League. Barça has already sent all the documentation to Madrid – it is done electronically, through a program that guarantees confidentiality between the teams and the management – and now the management is reviewing its contents. The limit, which until now was negative, will become positive. But what will be the final margin? This will depend on interpretation, as it is done through criteria that are not always objective. The Barcelona club, for example, reported that the sale of 10% of the television rights with Sixth Street meant an income of 207.5 million (from treasury) and an accounting profit of 267 million. However, it is possible that the employer does not see it that way and reduces this final figure.

One of the pitfalls facing Barça is that the audit has not yet been completed. According to the salary cap regulations, what an auditor says goes to Mass and the League abides by his judgment. But since this review of accounts is not yet closed and signed, everything depends on how they look at it in Madrid. In fact, Barça sources also warn that the auditor who is reviewing the accounts for the 2021/22 academic year – and therefore this sale of 10% of the audiovisual rights – also has doubts about the total profits that can be attributed to the income statement

Barça wants to avoid the scenario in which it has to prioritize registrations

“It is a very complex issue and we are aware of it. We are working with many open fronts and I do not think we will be able to complete the registrations right away. Luckily, we have time until August 13”, says an authorized voice from the sports area . According to the club’s accounts, with all the documentation already presented there should be enough to be able to register the signings – Kessie, Christensen, Raphinha, Lewandowski and Kounde – and the renewals – Sergi Roberto and Dembélé –. Otherwise, it would be necessary to obtain more margin, either with downward renewals or with the departures of Frenkie de Jong or Memphis. “It is not clear if he will have room to register all of them, but most of them will. The most likely scenario is that the club prioritizes registrations based on the degree of importance of the footballers”, they point out from the employers’ association. In what order? “The objective is to avoid this dilemma!”, they reply from the Sports City, where they trust that Tebas will allow them to register everything they have signed and they do not rule out some extra operation at the end of the market.

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