Barcelona will still be €60 million short after fourth lever – report | OneFootball

Despite the confidence exuded by president Joan Laporta, Barcelona are facing problems in their efforts to register the new signings made by the club this summer.

With less than a week left for the 2022/23 La Liga season to kick off, Barça are yet to successfully register any of their five new signings in Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski and Jules Kounde.

It was believed that things could be taken care of if Barcelona activate the fourth economic lever by selling another 24.5% stake in Barça Studios, which would generate an income of around €100 million.

However, according to a fresh report from COPE, even the activation of the fourth lever might not be enough for Barça to go ahead with the registration of the new signings while complying with La Liga’s Financial Fair Play rules.

As per the report, Barcelona would still need to generate around €60 million from player sales or other incomes, after the activation of the fourth lever, for them to be able to register the new signings successfully.

Hence, it does not come as a huge surprise that the Blaugrana have been putting in great efforts to try and offload Frenkie de Jong this summer. But with the midfielder refusing to leave, the Catalans are now trying to pressure him into reducing his wages.

At the same time, there could be a possibility that Barcelona also cash in on right-back Sergino Dest if a good offer comes along, even though they have not signed Cesar Azpilicueta.

Memphis Depay is all but certain to depart the club imminently, but he wants to leave as a free agent whereas Barcelona are demanding €20 million for his services. Whether they are able to extract such a fee for the Dutchman remains to be seen.

There are also reports about the club trying to negotiate lower salaries with club captains Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique to help enable player registration like they had done last summer as well.

What is clear at this point is that Barça still have several hurdles to clear to register their new signings. But with the new season on the horizon, they are running out of time fast.