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Barcelona must sell Frenkie de Jong to avoid FFP punishment

Man United have given an ultimatum to complete deal this week

by Red Billy


Pressure is mounting on Frenkie de Jong to leave Barcelona following the club’s signing of Leeds United’s Raphinha.

Despite a massive cash injection from the sale of TV rights, the Catalan club must still meet the requirements of La Liga’s and UEFA’s financial fair play rules, which they will not do without making a significant sale or drastically reducing the wage bill.

The situation is further hampered by the fact that the club has reached an agreement with Ousmane Dembele to extend his contract, albeit on a reduced salary.

His was another wage expected to vanish, freeing up funds to add Raphinha, Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen to the payroll.

It is also expected that Barcelona have not stopped there, as they have been furiously bidding on Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski and are reportedly in talks with Chelsea over Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta.

They are even still attempting to sign Bernardo Silva from Manchester City.

Quite simply, something has to give and that something was expected to be Frenkie.

Mundo Deportivo writes:

“[De Jong’s] departure would generate something that the Barça entity urgently needs: salary fair play.

“According to what the club has calculated, the transfer of the Dutchman to Manchester United, who want to sign him at all costs, would generate between 30 and 35 million in salary capacity.

“Frenkie insists on not wanting to leave and the club knows it. And the consequence, as has already been pointed out, is that this generates a ‘fair play’ problem that, if De Jong does not mitigate by leaving, will have to be solved in another way.”

Reliable reports yesterday said the United deal was “stalling” because of the player’s insistence that he would not leave nor take a pay cut.

This leaves Barca unable to register any of their new players nor advance with their other targets.

With few other options available to them, the Blaugrana simply have to sell the player which means finding a solution to the impasse over the €17 million in back pay owed to him.

According to Sport, United have meanwhile given De Jong and Barça an ultimatum to resolve the issue by the end of this week, or they will turn their attentions to other targets.

At the moment, that deadline seems very unlikely to be met unless one side caves in or a creative solution is found.

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