With just two days remaining before their La Liga opener, Barcelona are once again facing their first game without all of their squad available due to their finances.
Currently the Blaugrana have just 12 players registered for the match against Getafe. Earlier in the week they sold Franck Kessie to Al Ahli, one of three steps that Barcelona hope will allow them to register all of their players this summer.
One of those steps was the resale of 16% of Barca Studios to German investment firm Libero, in exchange for €60m. MD say that deal will go through on Friday, but with an important change in the structure. Libero will spend an initial €20m on 5% of Barca Studios today, and then provide €40m for the remaining 11% before the end of August.
The Catalan daily calculate that if Barcelona were to bring in €20m, plus €25m for the prospective exit of Ousmane Dembele and the income from Kessie’s exit, they would not have enough to register all of their new signings and the players that have signed new deals.
As such, Xavi Hernandez will be forced to choose which players to register ahead of the Getafe match. They note that captain Sergi Roberto, Ronald Araujo, Inaki Pena and Alejandro Balde are likely to be registered, while new signings Ilkay Gundogan and Oriol Romeu will also be near the top of the list.
The unfortunate duo likely to be left out are Inigo Martinez and Marcos Alonso. The former is less of an issue, as he is currently injured, although there is reportedly a clause in his contract that allows him to leave on loan for free if he is left unregistered.
The latter simply is seen as the least important of those options, and with Balde ahead of him, is unlikely to play excepting injury anyway.
Once again though, it appears that Barcelona will fail to deliver on promises earlier in the summer that they will have no issues registering their players. Last summer Jules Kounde missed their first two matches due to the fact that he couldn’t be registered, and it looks as if Xavi will be without all of his resources to start the season again.