FC Barcelona‘s financial situation in recent years has not been the best and, although there are some green shoots, it seems that the summer transfer market is still complicated for Deco, the club’s sporting director, and his team. Having the 1:1 rule does not prevent FC Barcelona from having to generate ‘fair play’ to sign players in the summer by investing the equivalent amount of sales and salary savings.
In recent months there has been talk that it was not guaranteed that Barça could take advantage of the 1:1 rule on July 1, that is, that for every euro of salary savings they could spend another.
This doubt as to the application of the rule would be due to the fact that LaLiga (the Spanish league) has questioned one of Barça‘s two transactions for VIP seats (the one carried out with New Era Visionary Group, from the United Arab Emirates) in its allegations sent to the Spanish Sports Council (CSD) regarding the registration of Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor. Furthermore, the club will not return to the Camp Nou within the timeframes initially planned, so the stipulated income for its return to the refurbished Spotify Camp Nou will not be met.
Now, the club’s new auditor, Crowe Spain, does not agree with the criteria of the temporary audit that validated the box operation. In a report by Adrià Soldevilà on the program ‘Què t’hi jugues?’ on the ‘SER’ radio station, it is pointed out that the 100 million should not be fully counted for this season because the asset — the new VIP seats — does not yet exist.
For this auditor there are two options: to record only the 58 million in cash already received on January 3rd or even to divide the total income from the agreement over the 20 years of the contract for the transfer of the seats, that is, 5 million per season.
Barça is looking to close the deal before March 31st, the deadline for submitting audited accounts. The auditor’s decision on the VIP box issue will determine Barça’s options in the transfer market.