Barcelona stopped from entering the transfer market this summer: La Liga chief

According to La Liga chief Javier Tebas on Thursday, Barcelona will not be able to sign more players in the transfer market during this summer.

The La Liga club spent big in 2022 on the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde, despite seemingly being hamstrung by monetary issues. They triggered several economic levers, including their TV rights, in order to be able to afford the costly outlay, but still are thought to be in debt to the tune of around £1billion.

"As of today, Barcelona doesn't have any room in its budget to spend in the upcoming transfer window," LaLiga chief Javier Tebas said in London, at the Financial Times' Business of Football summit.

"Barcelona has been involved in questionable behaviour which has had an impact on LaLiga and we are acting accordingly. We have ruled that they can no longer sign more players.

"They sold off £620m (€700m) in TV rights and tried to find different ways to solve the situation but they won't be able to do that next season. We have strict economic controls. At the end of each window, we tell all the clubs in LaLiga what they can spend.

"In the case of Barcelona, they have to drop from spending on wages and transfers from £532m to £399m (€650m to €450m), so it's a budget of minus £177m (€200m).

"They have to reduce their investment in players and we have encouraged them to sell players because, for every amount they raise in sales, they can spend 40 per cent of that."

Meanwhile, Barcelona president Joan Laporta is defiant and said that the club does not need to sell their star players this summer despite the ongoing need to slash its wage bill.

"Getting Antoine Griezmann and Gerard Pique off the wage bill would save the club around €90million (£80m) next season - an amount that was still to be added to the latest league calculation of what Barcelona can spend next summer," he had told reporters last month.

"We don't need to sell any important players. We will reinforce the squad."

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Laporta described a situation in which the club and LaLiga were in constant discussion over what they will be allowed to spend when they are informed of maximum allowed squad spend at the end of this season.

He said: "We will try to get the league to relax the rules that make it impossible for us to be competitive with other rivals.

"Fair play is more benevolent in other championships. We can't register players because of the salary limit set by the league. We have adapted, but we will try to keep fighting."