Barcelona have halt 2025-26 plans due to concerns over budget | OneFootball

Barcelona’s endless battle with the balance sheet is once again set to play a starring role in the summer of 2025. The Blaugrana continued to sell assets in December to give them more room for manoeuver in terms of their salary limit, but it is not clear whether they will be able to include that sale in their budget.

The Blaugrana announced an agreement for the sale of 475 VIP seats at the renovated Camp Nou to be leased out for 30 years to Forta Advisors and New Era Visionary Group in January to the tune of €100m. That was a move that was aimed at facilitating the registration of Dani Olmo and Pau Victor, although both La Liga and the RFEF have disputed its validity due the deadlines, and even suspicion of the integrity of the buyers.

Now, the VIP seats deal is playing havoc with their planning for the future. According to SER Catalunya, as carried by Diario AS, Barcelona have halted their planning for the 2025-26 season. Barcelona were due to present their accounts to La Liga until the 31st of December before the end of March, but have run into an issue with the sale of their VIP seats. As reported last week, auditors Crowe are refusing to include the €100m sale in their accounts as the asset does not exist yet.

Image via FC Barcelona

Originally it was scheduled that Barcelona would return to Camp Nou in November, but after several delays, the Blaugrana will not be back there until next season. As such, Crowe are refusing to include the sale in their 2024-25 accounts. This would play havoc with their salary limit, wresting at least the €57m that they have received from it, and as such, Barcelona have halted their plans for next season.

This is obviously a far from ideal situation for Director of Football Deco and manager Hansi Flick, who may have to alter their plans. The Blaugrana have been heavily linked with Bayer Leverkusen defender Jonathan Tah on a free transfer this summer, but whatever targets Barcelona had been looking at may be setting up back-up plans now.