From the moment the CAS appeal made sure we indeed weren’t gonna be allowed to make signings in 2015, I raised the following point: FIFA can only prevent us from registering players, but we can sign whoever we want.

It was obvious, from a legal standpoint, but it’s still a scheme, a maneuver a “trampa”, as said in Spanish. It’s not even a “loophole”, as you’re gonna see ahead.

We CANNOT, legally:
– sign players as in: said player gets to be called a FCB player and presented as such;
– “sign a player” and loan him to his current club: IMPOSSIBLE! For us to loan a player back to his current club, we would first need to register him as ours, and since that cannot be done, we obviously cannot loan players back.
– release an official club statement saying we “signed” players: all we can do is pay for a player’s current club to “hold” the player for us, then transfer him to us when January/2016 comes, and we would either pay more so the current club cover said player’s fee, or pay it all by ourselves. Besides, the club would need to NOT register said player at the UCL, which is something we would have to pay extra for, most likely.
– have a precontract with any club: FIFA does not allow precontracts between clubs, and especially not between a player under contract with a club and another club that wishes to sign him. That is only possible when the player is a free agent or about to end his current contract.

What this scheme allows us to do: Pay for a club so that they “hold” one of their players for us until January 2016. And that’s it.

It wouldn’t be legal because THERE WOULDN’T BE ANY CONTRACT!
This would need to happen by trusting the selling club 100%, only by words and a firm handshake.

So, as you can see, we can “sign” players, but the operation is far from simple, safe, and we would most likely get some sort of punishment from FIFA.

Nevertheless, Bartomeu has been using Mundo Deportivo for several weeks, and even SPORT joined the chorus, by promising us player the “legendary” Ariedo Braida is “scouting”.

Yes, the man who signed Kaka’s brother and paid 25mi euros for Ronaldinho is now supposed to be some sort of genius, not just someone who was lucky enough to have Berlusconi wealth to procure any big player he wished.

It’s just a very cheap ploy from Bartomeu to get votes from the fans Rosell has always prayed upon: older socis who has no access to the internet, or to people who actually believe that kind of junk that MD/SPORT spill daily.

But that is the subject for part 2…