Barcelona president Joan Laporta has said the club are in a constant tug-of-war with LaLiga over financial limits imposed upon them.
Laporta accused LaLiga of changing their own rules to prevent Barca from registering and signing players and said they will continue to fight the Spanish league with plans in place to further strengthen the squad this summer.
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Barca have already taken LaLiga to court over the registration of Gavi‘s contract. The Catalan club won an order to have the teenage midfielder’s new terms registered with LaLiga in January.
“LaLiga sets limits based on your accounts,” Laporta said in a news conference on Thursday which lasted over two hours and also saw him speak about Lionel Messi, transfers, the signing of Ronaldinho’s son and many more issues.
“We inherited a club in excess of its limit by €300-350 million. We have reduced [the wage bill] by around €100m but have maintained a competitive squad. By the summer, that will be €170m. We are still exceeding the limit but we saved Barca from financial ruin. What we inherited can’t be fixed overnight.
“That provokes LaLiga to apply even more restrictive rules on us. We made a huge effort, through selling assets, to register players. Every time we overcome an obstacle, LaLiga change the rules so we don’t do it again.
“It’s a constant tug-of-war. We will try to make their rules more flexible because they don’t allow us to compete in equal conditions with our European rivals. The rules are more benevolent in other leagues.”
Asked for an example of a rule change, he said: “We could start with the issue of selling assets. LaLiga changed the rule on that, which they are free to do so … We sold assets to build a more competitive team; then they changed the rule and put a 5% limit [of a club’s revenue] on asset sales.”
Despite Barca’s problems with adhering to LaLiga’s economic controls, Laporta insisted “it will not be necessary” to transfer players for large fees this summer. He also said the club plan to strengthen.
