Barcelona have registered four of their new signings in time for their first game of the season on Saturday.

The Spanish club were unable to register new players because of La Liga financial regulations, but freed up funding with several 'economic levers'.

The fourth was activated on Friday and, now ratified by La Liga, Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha can face Rayo Vallecano.

But the club are still waiting on France defender Jules Kounde.

The restriction also applied to players who have renewed their contracts this summer, namely Ousmane Dembele and Sergi Roberto, but both have also been registered.

In order for Kounde to be registered, Barcelona will need to free up 'salary mass'.

The club's levers have involved selling shares of their future television rights and their media production unit Barca Studios.

On Friday, they sold an additional 24.5% of Barca Studios to Orpheus Media for 100m euros (£84.6m), which was expected to generate enough revenue to satisfy La Liga and allow Barca to register at least some of their new players.

Speaking at his media conference at 17:00 BST on Friday, coach Xavi said Barca were "still working on it", and had until two hours before kick-off for the registrations to be confirmed.

Barca open their new campaign at home to Rayo Vallecano at 20:00 BST.

"The club is very positive," said Xavi. "We've just announced the fourth lever and we believe that tomorrow will be arranged. Maybe not 100%, but we'll see tomorrow.

"We still have up to two hours before kick-off. The club is doing a tremendous effort. I'm very happy and excited with the new signings and the team we have built.

"We're now ready to compete but, in terms of registrations, we have until tomorrow and right now we are optimistic."

Source: BBC 

BDST: 1240 HRS, AUG 13, 2022
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