Barcelona president Joan Laporta has appeared to reveal that his club will not be able to make signings in the January transfer window.
Laporta took over the Blaugrana presidency in 2021, his second stint in the role after his first trophy-laden tenure between 2003 and 2010.
But things were far from rosy off the pitch when he reassumed the controls, with the club forced to sell Lionel Messi and undertake a number of financial manoeuvres to remain operational.
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The club invested heavily last summer on the likes of Raphinha and Jules Kounde, but though their form in La Liga has been good, they were dumped out of the Champions League in the group stage.
Such a loss of potential revenue will therefore hurt them, and Laporta, speaking to EFE, revealed the extent of the club’s wider problems.
He said: “We had to pull some levers, which were economic operations that saved the club from ruin, and now the club is in economic recovery.
“But despite that, according to the rules of Financial Fair Play of the Spanish league, we can not sign [players].
“Us and some other La Liga clubs are also trying to convince La Liga to be more flexible, and allow us other types of interpretations that can make Barcelona even stronger.”
Laporta has been a long-time supporter of the European Super League concept, reckoning state-owned clubs – such as Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain – to be harming the competitiveness of the game.
To that end, he shared his belief that Financial Fair Play “should be harmonised” in all European leagues “because there are inequalities in this regard”.
“It is more flexible in the Premier League than in Spain and it doesn’t make much sense to me,” the Blaugrana president added.
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