Barcelona are just 11 days from the beginning of their La Liga season, and have only 13 players registered. There is a chance that may be the case by the time their tie with Getafe comes around too.
According Esport3, Barcelona are looking down the barrel after one of their planned ‘economic levers’ has fallen through. With Orpheus Media and Socios due to delay their payments for Barca Studios, Barcelona sought alternate financing.
That finance was to come from the re-sale of 16% of the 49.5% sold to those two businesses was to be bought by a German investment fund, who would pay the €65m up front that Barcelona were originally scheduled to receive. Now, that fund has decided to step back from a deal.
🚨 BREAKING: The German fund, which had initially planned to invest 65 million euros to acquire a 16% stake in Barça Studios, has ultimately decided to back out from the deal. It was a key operation to register players. It's a serious blow for Barça. 11 days before the start of…
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) August 2, 2023
This potentially leaves Barcelona unable to register new signings Oriol Romeu, Inigo Martinez and Ilkay Gundogan, while those who have signed new deals, Gavi, Ronald Araujo, Inaki Pena, Marcos Alonso and Sergi Roberto, may also be unavailable. In particular, Martinez and Gundogan are rumoured to have clauses in their contracts that they can leave the club for free or on loan if they are not registered for the Getafe tie.
Barcelona have denied these reports, and say that the deal is on track as before.
Presumably, Barcelona will look to find an alternative investment fund in double-quick time in order to cover this rather large problem, if indeed the initial reports are accurate. While neither the club nor President Joan Laporta could have foreseen this, it does highlight the fine line they have been treading on in recent times, relying on deals with external businesses to act as a crutch for their operations.
