La Liga is about to be unveiled, and Barcelona has not yet registered 5 new recruits, including Lewandowski, because La Liga will find that some of Barca's financial skills to increase revenue this summer involve "left hand to right hand" and cannot be counted as income. Barca are working to cut the salaries of their existing players, claiming to have found evidence that Frenki De Jong, Ter Stegen, Pique and Lenglet's 2020 renewal involves illegal terms requiring them to void their new contracts, re-sign the new one or continue the old one.
Barca have aggressively expanded this summer, buying Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, French defender Jules Kounde, Brazilian midfielder Raphinha, Danish defender Andreas Christensen and Ivorian midfielder Franck Kessie, all five of whom have yet to register as La Liga players. Spain's Daily Sport newspaper said that Osman Dembele and Sergi Roberto, who signed a new contract this summer, also failed to register.
In order to comply with La Liga's fiscal fairness policy, Barca has raised funds three times this summer, sold assets and interests, and increased revenue to meet the terms of the fiscal fairness policy and was able to register new recruits. Barca claim that financing, a new sponsorship contract with Spotify, coupled with the departure of players, have brought Barca more than 850 million euros in revenue.
However, La Liga will find that Barca's financial skills are problematic and will not approve the registration of 5 recruits. Barca claimed to sell 25% of its la Liga broadcast interest for the next 25 years, earning 667 million euros on paper. However, 150 million euros in La Liga's question is Barca's "left hand to right hand" and cannot be counted as revenue.
Spanish radio station Cadena Cope revealed the details of the deal, and Barca did not directly sell 25% of the broadcast rights to the investment firm Sixth Street. Barca started with a shell company called Locksley Investments, which barca sold its broadcast interests to, then Sixth Street paid 517 million euros to Acquire Broadcast Rights from Locksley Investments for 25 years, and then Barca used 150 million euros to obtain broadcast rights from 26 years onwards. As a result, Bassay claims to have earned 667 million euros in revenue.
If Barca want to register all their players in the la Liga opening game against Rayo Vallecano, they will have to raise a fourth financing, sell assets, or sell players and take a pay cut. Barca have been working hard for the "thin salary" of their players, and yesterday David Ornstein, a football journalist at The Athletic, disclosed that Barca wrote to Frenki De Jong, claiming to have found that the last Barca board of directors had violated the law when he renewed his contract with him in 2020, and Barca also had relevant evidence and did not rule out taking legal action; Barca want Frenki De Jong to agree to void the 2020 "salary delay contract" and follow the contract signed in 2019.
According to the latest reports, Frenki De Jong is not the only player who has been asked to void his current contract. Ter Stegen, Pieck and Lenglet, who also renewed their contracts in 2020, also received a notice from Barca, which demanded that the renewal involve illegal acts as a reason for the three people to annul the contract, and the barca president at that time was still Bartomeu. Pique, the old minister, has accepted Barca's proposal to take another pay cut and sign a new contract with Barca. To help Barca register recruit Memphis Depay last year, Pique has agreed to take a pay cut once. The position of Frenki De Jong, Ter Stegen and Lenglet, of which Lenglet was loaned to Tottenham this season, and the former two are still the main forces of Barca.
At the same time, Barca want Martin Braithwaite and Memphis Depay to leave the team as soon as possible to make room to register new signings. In addition, due to registration issues, Barca have yet to announce the transfer of left-back Marcos Alonso.