Online Reporter
Barcelona have announced their squad for the 2025-26 campaign on the day of their LaLiga opener, with a decision made on the future of Marcus Rashford.
On Saturday, Hansi Flick’s side begin their title defence on with a trip to Jagoba Arrasate’s Mallorca.
The Catalonian club have endured a series of well-publicised financial difficulties in recent years, and new signing Rashford had been left sweating over his future amid reports surrounding the club’s inability to register new players.
However, on Saturday morning Barca announced their squad for the coming season — with both Rashford, and fellow new arrival Joan Garcia both registered.
Rashford has been named in the travelling squad for the club’s LaLiga opener and could make his league debut for the Blaugrana at the Estadi Mallorca Son Moix.
Former club captain Marc-Andre Ter Stegen’s willingness to sign off on the assessment of the league’s medical committee that his latest injury will sideline him for the first five months of the campaign enabled Barca to guarantee the registration of Garcia for the full term and put forward Rashford’s case for approval.
Rashford is understood to have sacrificed 15 per cent of his £315 000-a-week salary to get his dream move to Barca.
He almost signed for the club in January but La Liga insisted the side sell before they buy and when they failed to offload Ansu Fati, who has since moved to Monaco, the deal had to be put on hold.
The Spanish champions have been overspending on their wage bill, which is restricted by LaLiga in accordance to each club’s revenue.
In an effort to tackle overspending in other sporting departments — and thus ease the salary situation — Barcelona’s executives have put their own personal wealth at risk as part of a bank guarantee worth €7million (£6m, $8,2m), according to The Athletic.
The Catalans also took the drastic action in December 2023 for the same reason.
After securing a season-long loan to the Spanish giants last month, Rashford will be keen to extend his stay beyond the end of the term.
And he would have been expecting to showcase his talents in a fully refurbished Nou Camp at the beginning of th billion project has faced a series of delays, with the latest reports casting doubt over whether they will be able to stage their September clash against Valencia at the venue.
Last month, the club were forced to walk back plans to stage the Joan Gamper Trophy, an exhibition match held every August, at the revamped 105 000-seater stadium because of a licensing issue.
It was the fourth major delay to the project after the club was unable to meet previous deadlines of November 2024 and February and May of this year.
According to Spanish outlet Sport, the Blaugrana face another headache, with the revised return looking “increasingly unlikely” as they continue to wait to receive an occupancy permit from the city council.
The council has previously stated that it cannot grant a licence, which they require to host the match, until the stadium works are fully completed.
Their report claims that the club could play the fixture at the Estadi Johan Cruyff, where Barca Atletic typically play their fixtures.
Barca have hosted home games at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium during the two-year exile from their iconic home but a return to the ground is not possible due to an event in the arena that weekend.
The Spanish champions are reportedly still hopeful of making the deadline but they have begun to draw up alternative options in case they are forced to keep their fans waiting even longer for the homecoming.
Even once it reopens the Nou Camp will be at a lower capacity, expected to be between 50 000 to 60 000, until renovations are finished, which is likely to be at the start of the 2026-27 campaign.
Meanwhile, Virgil van Dijk condemned the “disgraceful” racist abuse Antoine Semenyo was allegedly subjected to in Liverpool’s clash with Bournemouth.
Arne Slot’s men welcomed the Cherries to Anfield on Friday in the first game of the 2025-26 campaign.
In a competitive clash Liverpool ultimately secured all three points to mark a successful start to their Premier League title defence.
However, the result was marred by scenes during the game involving Bournemouth striker Semenyo.
As the 25-year-old prepared to take a throw-in during the first half he appeared to be heckled by a Liverpool fan from the stands.
Semenyo brought the incident to the attention of referee Anthony Taylor, and the match was promptly paused temporarily.
It has been alleged that the person who directed the abuse at Semenyo was a Liverpool fan sitting in a wheelchair in the bottom row of Anfield’s Main Stand.
The supporter was then escorted out of the stands by police.
Speaking following the game, Reds captain Van Dijk revealed that he had spoken with Semenyo regarding the incident.–DailyMail.
