Two weeks ago, FC Barcelona submitted the documents for the registrations of the squad for the new season. After a transfer window full with new signings, it was time to register all of them. In the FFP reality, registaring players is harder than you think in La Liga. That’s why other teams had to sell players, and Barcelona had to lease around 5% of the yearly revenue. But it wasn’t enough for La Liga, and they didn’t allow the registration of Jules Kounde.
This summer, FC Barcelona became a the ‘club to hate’ for many fans around the world. Suddenly, telling a player that he’s not in the plans of the coach is morally wrong. Furthermore, trying agree a reduction of the salary of players that get money out of the market value is also wrong. But most of all, leasing asset in order to get cash flow and reduce the debt of the club by half is also wrong.
Suddenly, twitter experts and journalists called the moves of FC Barcelona ‘selling their soul’. Meanwhile, these are fans of clubs that were entirely sold to billionaires. No one spoke about how Real Madrid sold the right to profit from certain operations at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium for twenty years.
Meanwhile, the club works with some of the biggest financial companies in the world, that believe and have access to the numbers. They believe in Barcelona, and they know that this club is one of the most valuable organizations in the world. You can read more about it here.
Accounting is the key
La Liga didn’t approve the registration of Jules Kounde, because they didn’t approve all the profits that the club reported in the documents. At that time, all the ‘Twitter experts’ out there celebrated how Barcelona are now ‘desperate’ and ‘gamble the future’. La Liga adviced Barcelona to sell more players in order to have enough margin to register Kounde and other new signings.
However, like all companies in the world, Barcelona are paying an accounting firm to handle the yearly accounts. Barcelona used the services of Deloitte, one of the world’s biggest accounting firms. They surely know more about finances than the Twitter ‘experts’ out there. Moreover, they probably know more than the financial department of La Liga.
The appeal
In the yearly report, the club took the money that they received for the TV rights, and counted the probable future increase in value. It’s a very common accounting move, and it makes a lot of sense with long term assets like Real Estate.
But La Liga didn’t approve this move. They wanted to count the nominal value at the day of the transaction. Therefore, they told the club that they couldn’t approve that kind of ‘accounting trick’ and didn’t approve the registration of Jules Kounde.
Barcelona appealed this decision, and even threatened to file a lawsuit because declining this move makes no sense in accounting.
According to recent reports, the conversations between La Liga, FC Barcelona and Deloitte were good. La Liga accepted that they made a mistake, and Jules Kounde can finally play his official debut.
Getting into the last days of the transfer window
Barcelona even has more margin to sign a cheap fullback. However, the club will still look to sell players in order to have more margin to sign more players.
The next days will be very interesting. Barcelona doesn’t have to sell Aubameyang and Memphis in order to register Kounde. But in order to sign players like Foyth, Galan and of course Bernardo – Move moves will be needed.
