Barcelona won’t return to 1:1 rule even if they sell Chelsea-linked star – report | OneFootball

There has been much noise surrounding the future of Fermin Lopez, with Chelsea keen on sealing a late move for the Barcelona attacker.

Although the club are not too keen on selling the homegrown star, many believe his potential sale could alleviate much of Barça’s economic problems and help the club return to normalcy.

Fermin Lopez’s sale won’t be enough

However, as pointed out by SPORT, even a major fee for Fermin would not take Barcelona back to La Liga’s 1:1 rule.

The club are still waiting for auditors to approve the €100 million tied to the Camp Nou VIP-seat rights deal.

Crowe Spain believes that money should be spread across the 30-year term rather than booked at once, and the remaining €42 million from New Era Visionary Group is still pending, with two instalments scheduled for September 2025 and before June 2026.

Without that green light, Barça remains under La Liga’s “exceeded” controls, meaning they can only count 20% of transfer profits and 60% of salary savings. Moreover, Lamine Yamal’s renewal has also eaten into available space.

Barcelona can’t return to 1:1 even after the potential sale of Fermin Lopez (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

From a fair-play standpoint, a Fermin sale around €65 million plus roughly €3.6 million net salary relief would generate close to €16.6 million.

That would help unlock key moves Hansi Flick wants, including the registration of Wojciech Szczesny and Roony Bardghji.

But it wouldn’t fix the broader gap created by the still-unaccepted VIP-seat revenue. Put simply, the sale would help Barcelona, but it won’t restore 1:1.

For now, Barça are leaning on short-term solutions. Gerard Martin was registered after Inaki Pena’s departure and Oriol Romeu’s contract termination.

The board has also activated a €7 million guarantee and prepared a further €5 million via promissory notes to cover roughly €10 million needed for registrations.