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Decisions currently being made by La Liga officials mean that Barcelona have found it hard to register some of their new signings. If they can manage to register all of them, can they be favourites to win La Liga this year? What does it mean if they can’t register all of their new signings, and where will this leave the Catalan giants?
What new signing has Barcelona managed to register in La Liga?
In the latest turn of events, La Liga has confirmed the registration of four new players after activating a fourth economic lever reported to be worth somewhere in the region of €100 million. The Catalan giants have activated a series of financial measures known as economic levers to free up some cash in an effort to balance their books.
The latest signings to have registered with La Liga are Robert Lewandowski, who came in from Bayern Munich, along with Franck Kessié from AC Milan, Andreas Christensen from Chelsea, and Raphinha from Leeds United. At the time of writing, they have still yet to register Jules Koundé from Sevilla.
Barcelona won’t yet fold as a club. They will still play their regular games, and you will still be able to place a wager on them on popular websites for sports betting online in the US. In fact most of these sites are giving Barcelona odds +120 making them tied with Real Madrid as the team with the highest odds of winning La Liga in 2023.
How did Barcelona come up with the funds?
The club managed to acquire additional funds by selling even more future Barca Studios television rights to Orpheus Media in a deal worth a staggering €100million (which is approximately $102 million or £84 million). It has also been reported that players, such as Gerard Pique, are willing to drastically cut their wagers to help out the club. More astonishingly, it means that Pique will effectively not receive any salary for the entire 2022/23 season. The final year of his contract will run out the following season (2023/24), for which he is set to take a wage, but the exact amount is still being finalised.
What does this all mean for Barcelona?
It means that they can now field some of their hottest new prospects at the start of the season, and they can now mount a serious challenge for La Liga title against Spanish giants Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. It also gives Barcelona even more hope of signing additional players going forward, such as Bernado Silva and Marcos Alonso. In the meantime, they will be focussing on trying to complete the registration of new arrival Kounde, who missed the opening match against Rayo Vallecano.
Real Madrid are currently favourites to win La Liga and are priced at +125 to win (in American/Moneyline odds). This equates to 5/4 in UK fractional odds and 2.25 in European decimal odds. In comparison, Barcelona are currently priced at +130 (13/10 or 2.30) to win the league, and Atletico Madrid are priced at +600 (6/1 or 7.00) to win.
Upcoming fixtures and where to watch
On Sunday, August 21st, Barcelona will face Real Sociedad away at the Reale Arena, and then they go on to play Manchester City in a club friendly at the Spotify Camp Nou, as it’s currently called. Next up is Valladolid at home on August 28th, and then away to Sevilla on September 3rd. Other upcoming games in September and October are against Cadiz, Elche, Mallorca, Celta Vigo, Real Madrid, Villareal, Athletic Club, and Valencia, all of which will be available to watch across several major streaming sites.
Now that Barcelona has been able to register some of its new signings, there’s no doubt in many people’s minds that they will become league champions for the 27th time, and who knows, could Messi make a shock return too?