Barcelona have managed to register four of their new signings in time for their first game of the new LaLiga season on Saturday.
The Catalan giants were unable to register new players because of LaLiga financial regulations, despite having freed up significant funds using some ‘economic levers’ that allowed them to sign five new players this summer.
The fourth of those ‘levers’ was activated on Friday and, after being ratified by LaLiga, it allowed them to register Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha – who can all face Rayo Vallecano at 8pm BST.
However, the club are still waiting to get France defender Jules Kounde officially on board to play.
The restriction was also in place for Ousmane Dembele and Sergi Roberto. Both players became free agents this summer before being re-signed by the club, but they have been cleared to play.
Barcelona have now been told they will have to free up ‘salary mass’ to register Kounde. That also applies to any additional signings.
The club’s levers have involved selling shares of their future TV rights and their media production unit Barca Studios.
On Friday, they sold an additional 24.5% of Barca Studios to Orpheus Media for £84.6m, which was expected to generate enough revenue to satisfy L Liga and allow Barca to register at least some of their new players.
Xavi relieved as Barca new boys registered
Speaking at his media conference on Friday, coach Xavi said Barca were “still working on it”, and had until two hours before kick-off for the registrations to be confirmed.
“The club is very positive,” said Xavi. “We’ve just announced the fourth lever and we believe that tomorrow will be arranged. Maybe not 100%, but we’ll see tomorrow.
“We still have up to two hours before kick-off. The club is doing a tremendous effort. I’m very happy and excited with the new signings and the team we have built.
“We’re now ready to compete but, in terms of registrations, we have until tomorrow and right now we are optimistic.”
