Football world in disbelief as Barcelona finds way to register new signings

Despite a lot of news surrounding FC Barcelona's financial problems, they managed to find a way to register most of their summer signings in time for the opening match of their 2022/23 La Liga season. Xavi Hernandez is breathing a sigh of relief now that he can field nearly his full squad against Rayo Vallecano at the Camp Nou on Saturday.

As of Thursday night, at least seven players have not been registered with La Liga. However, in a matter of 24 hours, it has been revealed by various publications including Marca, that the Catalan giants have successfully registered their summer signings and renewals except for Jules Kounde.

How exactly did that happen? As expected, the club was forced to activate a fourth economic lever through the sale of another 24.5 percent of media production arm Barca Studios. The club initially believed that they won't have to do this, having already sold a quarter of the company to Socios.com earlier this summer.

However, La Liga did not accept their computations and deemed that they were still short of the financial fair play requirements. After a meeting between club executives on Thursday, another huge chunk of Barca Studios was sold to Jaume Roures' Orpheus Media.

La Liga was then presented with the documentation on Friday, and the club was finally able to receive approval to register their players later in the day. Newcomers Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen are now officially registered with La Liga, along with Sergi Roberto and Ousmane Dembele, who both signed contract extensions this summer.

Jules Kounde is the only remaining player in limbo, plus possibly Marcos Alonso if he arrives from Chelsea in the coming days.

Barcelona are still busy trying to offload players, and the exit of one of the club's high earners may allow them to register everyone. The deadline for player registration is on Aug. 31, leaving the club with a lot of time to iron out the kinks.

However, many questions are being asked around the football world about how the Catalans managed to become one of the summer's biggest spenders despite the fact that they are swimming in debt. They have even gone as far as repeatedly asking players to accept pay cuts, and yet they have been splashing the cash in the transfer market.