Andrea Radrizzani, the owner of the English Premier Football Club, Leeds United has threatened a ‘global case’ against five times champions league winners, Barcelona should they fail to pay the transfer fee of Brazilian player, Raphinha.
Raphinha joined the Spanish football giants, FC Barcelona in July 2022 from Leeds United. Moji Delano reported that Barcelona spent the sum of £55million to employ the services of the Brazilian playmaker.
In a controversial transfer saga, it appeared as though the 25-year-old would be signing for Chelsea, with the Blues agreeing a fee worth around £55million with Leeds.
However, it quickly became clear that the LaLiga side was always in his sights and the delay to agree on personal terms with Chelsea proved telling in the end as Barcelona eventually sealed a deal.
ALSO READ: Barcelona Sell Another 15% Of La Liga TV Rights To Aid Financial Boost
While Xavi’s side have recruited Andreas Christensen, Pablo Torre, Franck Kessié, Robert Lewandowski, Jules Koundé and Raphinha this summer, they are struggling to register their new signings for domestic action due to LaLiga’s strict financial policies.
As a result, club president Joan Laporta has been attempting to ease their financial situation by activating ‘levers’ – selling portions of club-owned properties or TV rights in exchange for cash.
Many people are confused as to how Barcelona are spending a significant amount of money of new signings when they appear to be in a less-than-ideal financial situation.
Although Leeds opted to sell Raphinha to the Catalan club, owner Radrizzani had admitted that he is unsure how the LaLiga side have ‘found the money’.
ALSO READ: Asisat Oshoala Signs New Two-Year Contract With Barcelona
Listen to Leeds United owner, Radrizzani speak below.
🚨 Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani says Raphinha to Chelsea “done” & felt “ashamed” to go back on word to Boehly. Arsenal + Spurs also keen but “Barcelona influences” swung it
📺 https://t.co/Y37k7Vg0f8@TheAthleticUK #LUFC #CFC #FCBarcelona #AFC #THFC pic.twitter.com/Uqv05o47c5
— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) August 5, 2022
Speaking to The Athletic, he said: “I don’t know about behind the scenes and how they suddenly found the money and now it works, it’s not clear.”
When asked if he was confident that Leeds would receive the transfer fee for the Brazilian attacker, he replied: “Look, I’ll tell you on September 2. If not, we will have a global case on all the media in the world about Barcelona.”
While the finer details around the structuring of payments for Raphinha are unclear, it does appear that the payments will be staggered over a period of time.
This could indicate that the date mentioned by Radrizzani – September 2 – is one of the first dates for a scheduled payment to Leeds.
