After selling Memphis Depay to Atletico Madrid in the winter, and Gerard Pique’s retirement, Barcelona were hoping to make a few moves in the market.

The idea would have been to bring in a replacement for the departed Dutchman. However, La Liga have not allowed them to make signings in January as they believe Barça still have not reached the financial fair play limit.

Now unable to sign players, Barcelona, at the very least, wanted to register Gavi with the first-team and give him the #6 jersey. The league, unsurprisingly, have denied that request from the club as well, according to Que T’hi Jugues.

They are at war with La Liga now, and are ready to fight with their administration until the last moment to get Gavi registered with the seniors.

Apart from Gavi, Barcelona also want to register the new contract for Ronald Araujo, while renewing Alejandro Balde. The latter is enjoying his breakthrough season in 2022/23, but is still registered with Barça Atletic.

In recent times, Barcelona have only been able to register Inaki Pena to the senior team, giving him the #13 jersey number that is usually donned by the backup goalkeeper.

Barça president, Joan Laporta, in a recent interview, confirmed that they are in a legal battle with La Liga over signing new players as they believe they have done enough to reach the 1:1 rule for the winter.

“We are fighting with La Liga in court. We aim to have more fair play space to sign players, and we will fight for our best interests,” he said.

Xavi has stated multiple times that while he is happy with the squad at hand, Barcelona should sign replacements if any player ends up leaving. Speaking ahead of the game vs Real Madrid, for example, he said:

“I have already said that I don’t want anyone to leave, but if someone has to leave, we have to make up for it. I’m not going to name names because we’re focused on the final, but if someone wants to leave we have to make up for this possible absence.”