FC Barcelona Activate Fourth ‘Economic Lever’ Worth $102 Million, But Still Won’t Be Able To Register Players

FC Barcelona have activated a fourth economic lever worth €100mn ($102mn), though this still won’t be enough for them to register new players it has been claimed.

SPORT reported on Tuesday morning that the Catalans, previously said to be in debts of around $1.4bn, have sold a further 24.5% of Barca Studios to the GDA Luma investment fund for the mentioned fee.

This comes after they also offloaded 24.5% of Barca Studios to Socios.com on Monday last week, and a total 25% of their television rights to American investment firm Sixth Street for the next 25 years in two separate deals rumored to be worth a combined €567mn ($580mn).

After those first three levers were pulled, Barca reportedly sent off all the required documentation to see if they could register seven players ahead of the La Liga season.

These are namely new signings Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski, Jules Kounde, Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen plus a further two stars already on Barca’s books who have renewed their contracts in Ousmane Dembele and Sergi Roberto.

Ahead of the weekend, though, the Spanish top flight reportedly told Barca that they would still not be able to get the players registered for Saturday’s season opener against Rayo Vallecano at Camp Nou, which prompted Barca to activate the fourth lever today with just four days to spare until they officially get their 2022/2023 campaign underway.

On Monday evening, however, radio station COPE reported that even with the four levers in place, Barca will still have problems pulling off the operation and need to generate €60mn ($61.4mn) “through sales or other income”.

This might be easy to arrange if Barca seek another lever, or sell Frenkie de Jong in the coming days with the club having already agreed a €85mn ($87mn) transfer for the 25-year-old with Manchester United.

As De Jong doesn’t want to join United due to their lack of Champions League football, however, this is easier said than done.

Simultaneously, the club is also in a separate wrangle with the Dutchman over the contract renewal he signed in 2020 which the board of president Joan Laporta says contains evidence of alleged criminal activity.