Barcelona Believes It Can Circumvent Transfer Ban

Barcelona officials are currently examining options that would allow the La Liga giant to sign players this year, despite a FIFA-imposed embargo that prevents the club from buying players until January 2016.

The Catalan daily SPORT claims that Barcelona lawyers have uncovered two options.

The first option would be for the La Liga side to sign players, give them a normal working contract and then have them wait to play until January 2016 — similar to the circumstance this season when Luis Suarez was permitted to train with the first-team and participate in friendly matches while serving his four month FIFA-imposed ban for biting Giorgio Chiellini during the World Cup.

The next option would be the likeliest of the two and would involve Barcelona reaching an agreement with a player, but then that individual would continue playing with his current team until January 2016. Much like when Bayern Munich reached agreements with Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski while they were at Borussia Dortmund. The players finished their seasons at Dortmund before moving on to Bayern at the conclusion of the campaign.

Barcelona officials plan to hold meetings with FIFA representatives to ensure that the club would not be breaching any of the terms of the transfer ban. Although the Catalan side believes they are working within the restrictions and would not be impeded by world soccer’s governing body.