Exclusive: Rashford registration update as Barcelona in another hole to dig out of
Barcelona are unable to register Marcus Rashford to play for the club in a repeat of an issue that Catalan giants faced last season.
That is according to football finance expert Dan Plumley, who told Football Insider that the champions of Spain are “going to have to do the usual tricks” to fix their issue.
Barcelona have become specialists in wriggling their way out of tricky financial positions in recent years, in large part as a result of the mess that was left behind by former president Josep Bartomeu.
However, La Liga are now scrutinising the club after years of the club making questionable decisions, and Hansi Flick’s side must sell before they can register anymore players this summer.
Rashford completed his move to Barcelona on a loan deal with an option to buy, but despite jetting out to join the club for their pre-season tour of Asia, the English winger cannot participate as the registration limitations extend to friendlies.
One-time Aston Villa target Joan Garcia is also facing the same problems as the Man United loanee, following his move from cross-town rivals Espanyol.
Barcelona struggling to register Rashford and Garcia
Speaking to Football Insider exclusively, finance expert Plumley explained the issues facing the Catalan club when it came to player registration.
Dani Olmo was linked with a move to Man City last January after the club were forced to unregister the Spaniard to comply with La Liga’s wage cap.
That move came despite the club receiving an exemption to register the 27-year-old after he missed the first three games of the 2024/25 season.
The issue was resolved before Olmo was forced to find another club, but those same problems are rising to the surface for Los Blaugranas six months later.
Plumley explained: “Well, I think we’ve been here before with Barcelona, haven’t we? And we’ve seen them dig it out of the hole.
“They’ve got until August to rectify this issue, and they’re going to have to do the usual tricks.
“They’ve got to either sell players, cut wages, raise revenue. They’ve got to do that because that’s the La Liga cost control system that they’re working within.
“So it’s still tight, I think, as we’re talking now. You would like to think that they wouldn’t have put the Rashford deal through [if they weren’t certain they could register him], and they’ll be telling the player that he’s going to play.
“I think the likelihood is they would have said, look, we’re okay, we’ll make this work. But we’ve still got to wait and see on that one as we’re talking right now.
“And they’ve got a little bit of time and they’ve got previous in this space, but it’s pretty clear that, yeah, they’re going to have to do something to be able to get Rashford and the other player [Garcia] registered as well before that deadline.
“There’s work to do for Barcelona for sure.”
Kobbie Mainoo set for Man United stay
Removing Rashford from the wage bill is a step in the right direction for the Red Devils this summer, but the 20-time champions of England are still expected to look to sell in a bid to revamp Ruben Amorim’s squad.
Kobbie Mainoo has been linked with a Man United exit, but the club’s former chief scout Mick Brown told Football Insider the Carrington graduate looks set to stay in Manchester for the time being.
However, it appears that the youngster’s asking price is putting off clubs, rather than Amorim changing his mind on the midfielder.