Barcelona’s financial chaos continues with Lionel Messi still waiting to sign his new contract with the club.
Messi has officially left the club despite he and Barcelona coming to an agreement over a new two-year deal.
The deal cannot be signed due to Barca’s grave financial issues, which see them around €1billion in debt and 40% over their La Liga wage cap.
And in a fresh twist, it has been reported that not only are Barca not able to put a new contract in writing for Messi, but they are also unable to make their new signings official.
The Catalan giants have already signed Sergio Aguero, Eric Garcia, Memphis Depay and Emerson Royal this summer, snapping up three of the four for free, but there is a big sticking point.
Due to being over their La Liga salary cap, Barcelona can only reinvest 25% of any incoming money on new signings.
That means they cannot register Messi’s new contract unless the Argentine’s deal is only worth 25% of any incomings, and that also applies to the new signings.
None of their new signings can be signed until they have made enough money or reduced the wage bill enough for the new deals to only be worth 25% of incoming cash, or failing that, at the point at which the wage cap drops below the required level.
That could be a huge problem for Barca who, according to Zach Lowry, must drop their wage bill by around €200million to get the deals done.
Fortunately, Barca have made a start, offloading the likes of Francisco Trincao, Konrad, Junior Firpo, Jean-Claire Todibo and Matheus Fernandes.
But at this point, those exits are a drop in the ocean, and Barca will have to offload more than one of their top earners if they want to keep Messi and make those new deals official.