What is happening to former Leeds United star Raphinha at Barcelona amid latest farce and deadline
Raphinha faces uncertainty with new club Barcelona with the Catalan club’s La Liga opener fast approaching.
Raphinha is still not registered to play for new club Barcelona ahead of their La Liga opener this weekend.
The Brazilian left Leeds United this summer to join the Catalan giants, rejecting a move to Chelsea to get his wish.
The Whites pocketed an impressive profit after waving goodbye to Raphinha, and they made a number of impressive signings
But Raphinha has been left in limbo, or at least as things stand, with Barcelona still in financial difficulty despite making a number of new signings this summer, including Robert Lewandowski.
Their problem is not spending, however, but La Liga only allows each of its clubs to operate within its designated salary limit.
That limit is checked whenever clubs try to register new players, usually before the start of the season, as well as the end of every transfer window.
When a club is over their salary limit, they are also restricted to spending only 25% of their profits on new signings.
As things stand, Barca, although they have seen their salary limit increase this summer, are believed to be over their salary limit.
And having already completed a host of new signings, La Liga have barred those new players from being registered to La Liga, and that includes Raphinha.
Of course, without being registered, Raphinha and co are not allowed to play for Barca in league competition.
But there is fresh hope, according to Sport, who say Barcelona are confident of being able to register the players.
They will have to be registered by Thursday’s deadline to be involved in this weekend’s league opener with Rayo Vallecano, and Barca are locked in direct discussions with La Liga.
The report claims Barca have submitted new documentation which, they believe, will allow the players to be registered.
In the meantime, discussions are ongoing with Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets to restructure their salaries, and not for the first time.
And Barca are working on a number of sales in a bid to aid the process, but the report claims the Blaugrana believe the sale of Frenkie de Jong is not necessary to register the new signings.
It will be interesting to see if Barca can get the registrations done on time to allow Raphinha to play this weekend.
In the meantime, they are said to be reassuring the players, who are understandably concerned by the situation.