La Liga has told Barcelona to activate a fourth "economic lever" and probably take more pay cuts before the team is allowed to register the players they acquired during the summer transfer window for the 2022-23 season.

Barca already sold 25 percent of their shares in Barca Studios commercial arm to Socios.com for 100 million euros (about $101.9 million) in their third "lever" on Monday. Before that, the Spanish powerhouse sold 25 percent of their La Liga TV rights to US firm Sixth Street for the next 25 years for a projected total of around 450 million euros ($457 million).

However, these were not good enough to meet the salary limits imposed by La Liga. The fourth "economic lever" may include selling as much as 49 percent of their Barca Studios shares. Moreover, the club may need to negotiate new pay cuts with players including veterans like Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets.

Pique already accepted a salary reduction last summer so the Barcelona could register Memphis Depay and Eric Garcia. Busquets and Jordi Alba did the same to make the registration of Sergio Aguero happen. The irony is, Barcelona have been working hard to get rid of Depay during this transfer window.

Barca completed multiple major signings during the summer transfer window, including landing Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich, Jules Kounde from Sevilla and Raphinha from Leeds United. They are all waiting to be registered at the moment.

Moreover, the club is also trying looking at Marcos Alonso of Chelsea among other options to enhance their defensive line. Chelsea are trying to introduce Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona. If de Jong leaves Nou Camp, Barca may add Bernardo Silva of Manchester City as his replacement. However, none of the team’s signings will meaning anything if the players cannot be registered.

"We have done our job well and we think that we meet all the requirements. All of the documentation has already been sent and we are waiting for a response from La Liga," Barca President Joan Laporta said. "There could be some disparity, but as we understand that there will be no problems to because we have met everything [all of the requirements] and they will be able to register the footballers. If that isn’t the case, we are prepared to apply a fourth [economic] lever and we will do so."