La Liga chief Tebas fires warning to Barcelona ahead of 2025/26 season

La Liga president Javier Tebas has issued a warning to the 2024/25 League champions ahead of the new season, warning the club to return to the 1:1 rule before they can recruit new players.

Tebas warns that they will be unable to sign Nico Williams without selling first, and can’t register Joan Garcia despite triggering his release clause.

He has claimed the domestic treble winner will not only face problems with the registration of new goalkeeper Joan Garcia, but will also have to offload several players to facilitate the potential transfer of Williams without much hassle.

The Catalan club have been faced with serious financial issues – which is well-documented, with players like Dani Olmo and Pau Victor already going through registration setbacks back in January.

As such, La Liga made attempts to deregister Olmo, as a consequence of which the league cut the Catalans’ salary limit in April.

After a successful season, in which Hansi Flick’s men won La Liga, Copa del Rey, and Supercopa de Espana, they have already begun strengthening their squad by triggering Garcia’s €25 million release clause at Espanyol.

Barca are also reportedly making positive moves in signing Athletic Bilbao winger Nico Williams, with reports indicating that Flick’s side have reached a six-year agreement witht he the Spanish international.

Barcelona, however, insists on paying the 22-year-old’s €62m release clause in instalments, which does not go down well with the Basque side.

Speaking from Madrid’s Esade Campus on Tuesday, Tebas first spoke about Garcia’s registration. He said:

“One thing is to make the signing of Joan Garcia official and another, to register him. They have to make movements and see which players they are going to decide… I hear so much… I don’t know what is true of what is written.

“Barcelona is not in the 1:1 rule. I think the other day they announced the payment of Joan Garcia’s clause, but I don’t know if they have already done it, I don’t understand much… Barca has to do things to be able to register him, not many, but they have to do things and they already know what they are, I’m not going to say them, but we don’t even have dates, we’ll see.”

He then proceeded to talk about Barca’s pursuit of Williams, stating:

“I don’t know, but in the end you hear so many [names]: Williams, the other one, the one with the motorcycle… First of all, that what has to be registered is true, which I don’t know. But they don’t yet meet the requirements to sign freely, they can’t sign yet under the 1:1 rule. If they want Nico, they will have to sell and adjust their accounts a lot.”

It doesn’t look good from the look of things. The Blaugrana will possibly have to prioritse several outgoings before they can continue to revamp their squad for the upcoming season.