Barça seems to have left behind a few years of uncertainty and ups and downs to become a team with very clear ideas both on and off the pitch. On the pitch, Hansi Flick has had an outstanding year that has crowned him the best coach in LaLiga, while off the pitch, Laporta and Deco have shown that they make a good team by deciding to put the German in charge of the team a year ago and commit to the youth academy at a time of economic crisis.
Barça continues to struggle with financial problems and salary caps, which forced them to take precautionary measures last January so that Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor could be registered and continue playing for the club. The situation ahead of this summer’s transfer window looks set to be complicated once again, although the club is conveying a message of hope.
The 1:1 rule and VIP boxes
The main problem for FC Barcelona is that it is not complying with the 1:1 rule. The 1:1 rule states that a club can only spend the same amount of money on signings as it earns, either through sales or salary savings. To avoid debt, LaLiga created the so-called 1:4 rule in 2021, whereby clubs could only spend 25% of their income if they exceeded the limit.
This is the situation Barça finds itself in, as the sale of the VIP boxes has not been taken into account. This has been the problem for the Catalan club, which submitted the paperwork, but the auditor Crowe Spain did not agree with the criteria of the temporary audit that validated the sale of the boxes. According to this company, the 100 million should not be counted in full in this financial year as they have not yet been built.
Now that the boxes have been completed, the club is confident that it will return to the 1:1 rule and thus be in a better position to tackle the transfer market. Laporta spoke about the issue a few days ago in an interview. “Fair play is determined by LaLiga at the end of the season depending on budgets. We will bring in 950 million euros this year. Next season, the budget will exceed €1 billion. We are confident that we will be at 1:1. This makes it much easier for Deco to work,“ said the Barça president. He added that ”last season we ended with positive results and that helped us a lot. Above all, it is easier for Deco to work with 1-1 than with 1-4.”
A zero-cost signing
In that sense, considering a zero-cost signing would be interesting, although the hole in the salary cap would still have to be filled, but Ansu Fati’s departure is already being finalized, so there would be no problem. In recent months, a player has been linked to the club who would fulfill that premise of arriving at zero cost to the Azulgrana team. We are talking about Thomas Partey. The 31-year-old midfielder could return to La Liga five years later.
A few days ago, Deco ruled out the option, assuring that no one was being sought for this position, which is already overbooked with players. However, sources in England claim that the Catalan club is in talks with the midfielder for the Ghanaian to join for free in the next transfer window. The Sun is reporting that Barça representatives have already begun talks with the Ghanaian’s entourage for a free transfer this summer. The possibility of his arrival seems surprising, to say the least, given that this is a position that is already well covered and also because of his age, as the club is committed to a young squad.