Barcelona register Koundé after directors get personally involved
Barça were up against salary limits and in order to register the defender the directors put up a personal guarantee.
Jules Koundé will finally be able to play for Barcelona in LaLiga. The Catalan giants have registered the player using article 92 of the LaLiga regulations, under which the Directors of the club will put up personal guarantees, allowing the French central defender to become a first team player.
Koundé will be available to play against Valladolid on Sunday in Laliga.
Barcelona register Koundé
LaLiga has strict financial limits on club squads, and Barcelona have bumped up against these, meaning there were fears the club might not be able to register Koundé to play for them, despite signing him from Sevilla earlier in the summer.
However the aforementioned article 92 allows for an increase in a club’s ability to register players where anticipated income or profits are backed by cash deposits or bank guarantees provided by shareholders or third parties. In this case the directors of Barcelona have put up the money to ensure Koundé can be signed. The club is now required to repay them at the end of the season, and if it does not do so the guarantee from the directors is turned into equity in the club, which LaLiga can use to pay any club debts falling due. There is a limit to how much the directors are allowed to put, being 5% of the club’s net revenues.
Why are the Barcelona directors getting involved?
The Barcelona directors are being forced to get personally involved because the club has failed to move on players (Aubameyang or Memphis) in order to make salary space for the Koundé. Although certain steps have helped the situation - the departure of a player from the reserve team or the loan of Samuel Umtiti - these by themselves were not enough to be able to register Koundé.