Barcelona sold off a number of assets in the summer, to the tune of €667m, in order to fund and enable their spending spree. While the club had the money available previously, they had to meet La Liga’s salary limit rules and the only way to put their accounts into sufficient profit was by doing so, or at least that’s according to them.
They will not be able to repeat the trick. Although President Joan Laporta has permission from the members to sell off another 49% of Barcelona Licensing and Merchandising, it has been declared that the era of economic levers is over.
Currently Barcelona are just about within their salary limit, but according to Mundo Deportivo, they will have to sell in the winter window in order to make any more signings. Otherwise they would once again be subject to the 1:4 rule, where clubs can only add 25% of their savings/sales to their salary.
That would corroborate Laporta’s statements made recently, where he admitted that Barcelona were among several clubs lobbying La Liga in order to relax the rules.
It is unlikely that Barcelona would look to commit major surgery to their squad in January, however it has been noted by many that the right-back position is not at the same level as the rest of the team.
