Barcelona ready for ‘intense week’ as Joan Laporta scrambles to register players again
Barcelona kick off their La Liga title defence on Saturday against Real Mallorca and are once again scrambling to register players before returning to action.
It’s a scenario that’s become worryingly familiar at Camp Nou and will once again leave players sweating on their availability for the start of the season.
Dani Olmo and Jules Kounde know all about what it feels like, having been forced to miss matches after joining the club, and this year it’s the turn of Joan Garcia, Marcus Rashford and Roony Bardghji.
Except it’s not quite as simple as all that. Barca also need to register Wojciech Szczęsny, Gerard Martín, Héctor Fort, and Marc Bernal for 2025-26 as well. There’s basically a chance that Inaki Pena might have to play on Saturday because Garcia and Szczesny aren’t registered and Marc-Andre ter Stegen is injured.
Joan Laporta is in optimistic mood as always but has admitted things might get a little bit tense in the build-up to Saturday’s league opener.
“This week will be an intense one because certain operations are about to closed out that will give us the margin of financial fair play we need to register players,” he told TV3.
Yet the fact that Laporta has also said he’s “really grateful” to Inigo Martinez for leaving and that “we would have liked for him to stay for the year left on his contract” shows the registration process isn’t as easy as he’d like us all to believe. If it was, the players would be registered already.
Instead Barcelona are once again battling the clock, still trying to get the VIP boxes deal approved by the auditor so they can return to the 1:1 rule and get everyone registered.
There’s also the small matter of where Barcelona are going to play this season to worry about. The renovated Camp Nou was supposed to host the Gamper Trophy but it ended up being played at the Estadi Johan Cruyff instead.
Barcelona’s first home game of the season against Valencia on September 14 is also supposed to be played at the Camp Nou but doubts are growing over that scenario and the club are reportedly looking for alternative solutions.
Time is ticking.
Source: barcablaugranes.com
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