Barcelona to try everything in power to force Martin Braithwaite out of the club in order to ease new signings' La Liga registration issues..

2022-08-12 14:40

Barcelona to try everything in power to force Martin Braithwaite out of the club in order to ease new signings

Martin Braithwaite (pictured) during the La Liga Santander match between Levante and FC Barcelona at the Estadi Ciutat de Valencia on April 10, 2022 in Valencia, Spain.




BARCELONA - Barcelona are determined to secure Martin Braithwaite’s departure from the club as soon as possible in order to to ease their troubles regarding registering their new summer recruits to La Liga according to Spanish outlet Diario Sport


The Blaugrana have done everything they can to move him on but the Danish marksman is proving reluctant to leave.


Braithwaite is refusing to move on unless he’s paid the final two years of his contract. He won’t accept a transfer or a loan deal. Another meeting will take place today and it’s understood that Barça are considering taking the drastic step of unilaterally terminating his contract. The situation is tense.


Initially, Barça sought a transfer for Braithwaite, but the Dane asked for a last chance and was denied. 


Since then, the player's entourage rejected all offers and talks broke down until now. Braithwaite is upset with the club's stance and prefers a contract termination to then make own his choice of destination. And although he has offers from Spain and the Premier League, the striker could opt to go to Saudi Arabia with a lucrative contract.


As of close of play in Spain on Thursday, none of the Catalan giants' new arrivals had been registered with La Liga. Players must be registered within four hours of Saturday's 9pm local time kick-off.


Barça are still sure they will be able to register Robert Lewandowski, Ousmane Dembele, Sergi Roberto Raphinha, Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen and Jules Kounde before the end of the month.


But they are in danger of not being to register all of the signings before Saturday night's home match with Rayo Vallecano.


'There will be no problem in registering all the players we have signed. We are on the right road (to doing that),' said president Joan Laporta on Sunday. 


But on Thursday, he was in late-night talks with his board in a restaurant in Barcelona discussing the way forward after so far failing to satisfy La Liga's financial fair-play regulations.


Barça's problems have come in part because their valuation of the new revenue they have secured this summer is over and above La Liga's valuation.


The club sold 25 per cent of future TV rights but there was a difference of opinion when it came to deciding how much money they had raised from it. They declared €667million (£564m) but LaLiga only accepted €517m (£438m).


The difference can be explained by them forming a spin-off company called Locksley Invest with the US investment fund Sixth Street of which Barça and Sixth Street both own 50 per cent.


Twenty-five per cent of Barça's future TV rights income were sold by Locksley to Sixth Street for €517m (£438m). 


Barça then paid €150m (£127m) to buy them back in 25 years time and declared that €150m (£127m) in new revenue but La Liga accepted only the €517m (£438m) deeming the other €150m (£127m) to be the club buying from themselves, in effect.


That meant Barcelona had to either sell Frenkie de Jong or sell a further 25 per cent of their production company Barça Studios and they have yet to do those two things.

Braithwaite, 31, joined Barcelona at the beginning of 2020 from Leganes due to an injury crisis in his position. Since then he’s made 57 appearances for the club, contributing ten goals and five assists during that time. 


A Danish international with 60 caps and ten goals to his name for his country, he’ll be hoping to be a part of their squad for the Qatar World Cup later this year.