Barcelona face summer transfer ban if they fail to get finances in order

LaLiga president Javier Tebas has declared that Barcelona will not be allowed to bring in any new players in the summer window if they do not reduce the amount they currently spend on their squad by €200 million by the time the window opens. 

Tebas and Barcelona have been at loggerheads for months over LaLiga’s strict financial fair play laws and in this latest episode, the league body’s president has criticised the club for “questionable behaviour” and announced that Barcelona will not be allowed to sign more players. 

Speaking at the Financial Times' Business of Football summit, Tebas said, “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.

“They sold off (€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.”

According to Tebas, Barcelona need to significantly reduce the amount they currently spend on wages and transfers, and unless they find another way, other than selling TV rights to activate levers to achieve this, LaLiga will not allow them to sign players. 

“In the case of Barcelona, they have to drop their spending on wages and transfers from €650m to €450m, so it’s a budget of minus €200m,” Tebas added before suggesting an avenue that Barcelona could use to raise the needed funds. 

“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% of that.” He concluded. 

Barcelona, however, believe that Tebas’ latest attack on the club will not hold water when the transfer window opens as the club is already taking active steps to comply with the financial fair play regulation by reducing its wage bill. 

Club Director Mateu Alemany recently said that the club had taken active steps to remedy the situation, saying, “If Tebas is talking about reducing fair play by €200m, we’ve almost achieved that already. We won’t have Geri [Gerard Pique] and Grizou’s [Antoine Griezmann] contracts from this summer, [and that is] €90m less.”

It is left to be seen how this latest episode of Barcelona versus Tebas plays out, but the news has certainly got rivals at home and abroad salivating at the prospect of picking apart Barcelona’s talented squad for their best players should the club be forced to sell.