Barcelona may not register club captain to allow the registration of a new signing

With the new season less than a month away, Barcelona are still in murky waters as far as their Financial Fair Play and salary margin situations are concerned.

Plans to sign Nico Williams and Dani Olmo are in full flow but there is still a sense of uncertainty as to whether their registration can be completed.

As has widely been reported, Barça need to sell some players in order to be able to sign and register new stars, but outgoings are proving to be complicated thus far.

Ronald Araujo to be unregistered?

Amidst all this, a report from Que T’hi Jugues claims that Barcelona could go into the first half of the season without registering Ronald Araujo, so as to make use of that salary space to register a new signing.

Araujo, one of the club captains at Barcelona, has been sidelined for four months after undergoing surgery on an injury he sustained earlier this month while playing for Uruguay. As such, he will be out of action at least until December.

Araujo is out with an injury. (Photo by Candice Ward/Getty Images)

In case of long-term injuries, La Liga rules allow for clubs to register a new player in place of the one injured, as long as they occupy 80% or less of the salary space freed up.

Barcelona made use of that rule to register Vitor Roque in January with the space cleared by Gavi’s ACL injury.

And now, Barcelona could decide not to register Araujo with La Liga for the first half of the season and make use of that salary space to register a new signing or an existing player like Inigo Martinez, who is currently unregistered.

All in all, a tricky period awaits Barça as plan to make big additions to the roster such as Nico Williams and Dani Olmo.