Barcelona has been told that they must sell Frenkie de Jong after their attempt to register signings was rejected.
Barcelona's attempts to register five new signings in this summer transfer window have been rejected by La Liga, and the club must now act on the sale of Frenkie de Jong.
Barcelona's hopes of keeping midfielder Frenkie de Jong have been dashed after they were told they couldn't register any new signings until they reduced their financial outgoings.
This summer, the Catalan club signed Andreas Christensen, Franck Kessie, Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski, and Jules Kounde while renewing the contracts of Ousmane Dembele and Sergi Roberto, neither of whom can be registered with La Liga until the club's books are balanced.
Barcelona has set a 10-day deadline for any potential transfer of Dutch international De Jong, who is being pursued by both Manchester United and Chelsea. It comes after United manager Erik ten Hag instructed the club to be patient in negotiating a new contract with the player.
Barcelona's board of directors, led by club president Joan Laporta, took drastic measures to raise funds this summer, authorizing the sale of some of the club's major assets. Among the assets, the club chose to sell 25 percent of its TV rights to Sixth Street in two separate transactions.
However, this was insufficient to put the club in a sufficiently healthy financial position ahead of the new season, prompting them to sell a 25% stake in Barça Studio to socios.com for around €100 million. The combined sale of club assets raised €767 million for the club, and they had hoped to use this money to register new players.
At Lewandowski's presentation at Camp Nou on Friday, club president Laporta told the assembled fans, "We have worked to enrol all of them" (the new signings). We worked extremely hard and efficiently to meet the deadline.
"And if any additional operations are required, we will perform them. We're just waiting. La Liga must make a decision on this. We have done everything that was asked of us. We are confident in our ability to register them."
However, Barcelona's attempts to register their new contractual arrivals were thwarted on Friday, with La Liga preventing them from logging the deals on their system. Simply put, the Catalan club must now raise additional funds in order to allow their new signings to represent the club.
Laporta is already preparing to sell another 24.5 percent of Barça Studios, which will inject much-needed funds into the presence but will ensure that the club's long-term revenue streams take another hit - with critics claiming that these measures will only exacerbate the situation.
However, Barcelona must sell players as well; their balance sheet must show both transfer income and, more importantly, a significant reduction in the wage bill. Midfielder De Jong is becoming increasingly important in this scenario, as he is the club's highest earner but is unlikely to be a first-team regular next season, no matter what he says.
Memphis Depay, Martin Braithwaite, Miralem Pjanic, and Samuel Umtiti are among the other priority departures, though it is unlikely that any of those players will generate a transfer fee and none are on high wages.
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