Barcelona have been warned they need to drastically reduce costs, before they can afford to sign Borussia Dortmund striker, Erling Haaland, Goal reports.
The Catalans are keen on the 21-year-old, who is also being monitored by Manchester City and Real Madrid.
However, they are still in a bad financial situation and have been given a negative spending limit by LaLiga.
A presentation from LaLiga on Monday, revealed Barca have a spending limit of -โฌ144 million, down from a limit of โฌ98m from last year.
Barcelona are the only club in the Spanish top-flight to be handed a negative ceiling. Real Madrid, on the other hand, have a maximum of โฌ739m (ยฃ622m/$812m).
When asked about Barcelonaโs hopes of signing Haaland, LaLiga director-general, Javier Gomez, said: โTo make signings, Barcelona have to reduce the costs they have now or bring in more income. Thereโs no other way.
โBarcelonaโs losses are greater than their capacity to bring in income. Thatโs why [the spending limit] is negative.โ
He added: โUntil [Barca] recover the net worth that theyโve lost, the only way they can spend is with the 1:4 rule, where if you save โฌ10m, you can spend โฌ2.5m.
โThe only way for Barcelona to sign is by making savings on [player] contracts, until they generate income.โ