Barcelona are hopeful that an eleventh-hour attempt to register Marcus Rashford in time for their LaLiga opener on Saturday will be successful.
But the Blaugrana’s eligibility scramble is the latest issue to disrupt the Englishman’s start to life in Catalonia.
Following reports on Wednesday that the LaLiga champions had taken drastic action to register the Manchester loanee and new goalkeeper signing Joan Garcia for their season opener, Spanish outlet AS on Thursday claimed that the club had made some headway in their effort.
Club captain Marc-Andre Ter Stegen’s willingness to sign off on the assessment of the league’s medical committee that his latest injury will sideline him for the first five months of the campaign, has enabled Barca to guarantee the registration of Garcia for the full term and put forward Rashford’s case for approval.
Rashford is understood to have sacrificed 15 per cent of his £315,000-a-week salary to get his dream move to Barca.
He almost signed for the club in January but La Liga insisted the side sell before they buy and when they failed to offload Ansu Fati, who has since moved to Monaco, the deal had to be put on hold.
The Spanish champions have been overspending on their wage bill, which is restricted by LaLiga in accordance to each club’s revenue.
In an effort to tackle overspending in other sporting departments – and thus ease the salary situation – Barcelona’s executives have put their own personal wealth at risk as part of a bank guarantee worth €7million (£6m, $8.2m), according to The Athletic.
The Catalans also took the drastic action in December 2023 for the same reason.
Like Rashford, returning goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and defender Gerard Martin risk sitting on the sidelines until the winter transfer window opens in January.
AS’ report claims that while there is optimism over Rashford’s situation, Szczesny and Martin are unlikely to be registered before the Saturday afternoon deadline.
After securing a season-long loan to the Spanish giants last month, Rashford will be keen to extend his stay beyond the end of the term.
And he would have been expecting to showcase his talents in a fully refurbished Nou Camp at the beginning of the campaign.
However, the club’s £1.3billion project has faced a series of delays, with the latest reports casting doubt over whether they will be able to stage their September clash against Valencia at the venue.
Last month, the club were forced to walk back plans to stage the Joan Gamper Trophy, an exhibition match held every August, at the revamped 105,000-seater stadium because of a licensing issue.
It was the fourth major delay to the project after the club was unable to meet previous deadlines of November 2024 and February and May of this year.
According to Spanish outlet Sport, the Blaugrana face another headache, with the revised return looking ‘increasingly unlikely’ as they continue to wait to receive an occupancy permit from the city council.
The council has previously stated that it cannot grant a licence, which they require to host the match, until the stadium works are fully completed.
Their report claims that the club could play the fixture at the Estadi Johan Cruyff, where Barca Atletic typically play their fixtures.
Barca have hosted home games at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium during the two-year exile from their iconic home but a return to the ground is not possible due to an event in the arena that weekend.
The Spanish champions are reportedly still hopeful of making the deadline but they have begun to draw up alternative options in case they are forced to keep their fans waiting even longer for the homecoming.
Even once it reopens the Nou Camp will be at a lower capacity, expected to be between 50,000 to 60,000, until renovations are finished, which is likely to be at the start of the 2026-27 campaign.
The completion of a new third tier, a roof installation, interior spaces and development of the stadium’s surrounding areas still need to be completed.
Head coach Hansi Flick could be without star striker Robert Lewandowski for Saturday’s fixture against Mallorca. In the event that Rashford is ineligible, it will leave the German with only former Manchester City forward Ferran Torres available to play in the number nine position.
