BARCELONA have been placed under a transfer ban this summer because of their inability to rein in costs.
La Liga chief executive Javier Tebas revealed that Barca’s “questionable behaviour” had put the Catalan giants on Spanish football’s naughty step.
Barca have spent wildly in recent years and tried to balance the book by effectively mortgaging future TV and other incomes by selling off a stake in the club.
Now the Nou Camp side is embroiled in another row after it emerged they had allegedly been paying off a senior member of Spanish football’s refereeing hierarchy over multiple seasons.
And speaking at the FT Business of Football summit in London, Tebas confirmed: “As of today, Barcelona doesn’t have any room in its budget to spend in the upcoming transfer window.
“Barcelona has been involved in questionable behaviour which has had an impact on LaLiga – and we are acting accordingly.”
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Tebas added: “We have ruled that they can no longer sign more players.
“They sold off €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 La Liga what they can spend.
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“In the case of Barcelona, they have to drop from spending on wages and transfers from €650m to €450m – so it’s a budget of minus €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.”
As for the refereeing corruption scandal, Tebas added: “It doesn’t matter that it’s Barcelona – it’s about the reputation of LaLiga as a competition.
“This is a very serious issue. The statute of limitations has run out but we are acting on the criminality side of things.
“Barcelona has a lot to explain about these payments.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
