Barca President: 'Liverpool demands $240 million to sell Coutinho'

Josep Maria Bartomeu insists Barca cannot bring Coutinho to Nou Camp because of Liverpool's unreasonable demands.

"I won't say what Barca's offer was, but Liverpool wanted $240 million," Josep Maria Bartomeu told TV3. "We can't meet that figure. Barca's offer was less than $120 million, and no more than $145 million when you add in the add-ons."

Barca are being pressured to find a replacement for Neymar, after receiving $263 million from selling the Brazilian star to PSG. Before abandoning their pursuit of Coutinho, the Nou Camp team made Ousmane Dembele the second most expensive player in the world, with a transfer fee of $125 million.

Barca cannot buy Coutinho because of the sky-high price offered by Liverpool

"A lot of money is poured into football. That makes the transfer market expensive. It all happened like that with Coutnho," the Barca president shared. "That's why I'm pleased to see PSG being investigated, to clarify whether they violated the Financial Fair Play rules or not."

Earlier this month, Liverpool accused Barca of fabricating the Coutinho deal. Anfield sources told the Telegraph that Barca's offer was immediately rejected because Liverpool did not want to negotiate. The Port City team has never set a price for the former Inter player.

That's all in the past now, and Bartomeu stressed: "We now need to focus on investing in La Masia and the club's training academies. We need to respect the rules here."

The Nou Camp chief also revealed part of the developments in Neymar's defection to PSG. "We believed Neymar's father too much. He told us at the end of July that nothing had happened. We need to be self-critical on this point,"Bartomeu shared.

According to VNE