Three of Barcelona’s 17 registered players are without a squad number ahead of their LaLiga season beginning tomorrow.
The Catalan club have so far been unable to register £145million worth of new signings in Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Jules Kounde, Frank Kessie and Andreas Christensen, with the Spanish league insisting the club must raise around £85m before Saturday’s league opener against Rayo Vallecano to register these additions.
Such is the dire financial situation at the Nou Camp that Ousmane Dembele and Sergi Roberto, who both signed new deals this summer, are also unable to be registered despite playing for Xavi’s side last season due to LaLiga’s strict salary cap rules.
This means that the Spanish giants have registered just 17 players ahead of the new campaign, with three not having a squad number in Samuel Umtiti, Nico Gonzalez and Martin Braithwaite.
Barcelona are desperate to offload the trio in order to raise funds and make space for new arrivals, with Gonzalez having already joined Valencia on loan.
Homegrown players such as Gavi, Alejandro Balde and Abde Ezzalzouili can feature without being registered, bringing the total up to 20.
However, in reality the number is actually much lower, with the trio who don’t have a shirt number unlikely to feature, while Memphis Depay is expected to join Juventus , meaning Xavi may have just 13 senior players to pick from on Saturday.
The financial problems for Barcelona have been well publicised with the club £1.14billion in debt but this has not stopped them being Europe’s biggest spenders this summer.
Lewandowski joined for £42m, Raphinha signed for £55m and Kounde for £46m, while Kessie and Christensen both arrived as free agents.
President Joan Laporta has been raising new funds by activating financial levers, which has led to them being nicknamed FC Palanca, or Financial Levers FC, in the local media.
This includes selling future TV rights and half of their in-house TV company, Barca Studios, but this has been described as Barcelona 'mortgaging their future’ and they now face the prospect of leaving their new signings in the stands this weekend.
The activation of the levers has provided the Catalan club with money to sign players but has not enabled them to reduce the wage bill and they are yet to meet the salary cap regulations of the Spanish league.
On Friday they sold another 25 per cent of their in-house production hub for £85million to help boost their finances in a late bid to register their summer signings.
The club are reportedly optimistic over finding a positive solution and believe the new deal with stump up the required funds, but if not they may have just under £145m worth of talent sitting in the stands at the Nou Camp on Saturday evening.
Marcos Alonso is also expected to join Barcelona from Chelsea while Xavi would reportedly like to add Bernardo Silva from Man City before the end of the summer.