Barcelona players celebrate their opening goal scored by Barcelona's Dutch midfielder Frenkie De Jong during the Spanish league football match between Elche CF and FC Barcelona at the Martinez Valero stadium in Elche on Jan 24, 2021. (JOSE JORDAN / AFP)

MADRID - FC Barcelona travel to play second division side Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday night at a difficult moment for the club after crippling debts of over 1,170 million euros were revealed on Monday.

Leo Messi will be back after suspension in Rayo's Vallecas Stadium

The debt includes outstanding payments totaling almost 200 million euros for signings, with Barca still owing Liverpool around 40 million euros for Philippe Coutinho and a similar amount to Ajax for Frenkie de Jong.

More worryingly the club has still to finish paying for footballers, such as Malcom, Arturo Vidal and Arthur Melo, who aren't even at the club anymore and in the cases of Malcom and Arthur, completely failed to live up to expectations.

With Barca due to hold elections for a new president in April if the health situation permits, it is hard to see what any new president will be able to do to resolve the problems in the short term, even if Barca are still the highest-earning club in Spain.

Meanwhile, coach Ronald Koeman continues to ask for signings to strengthen his squad, with Eric Garcia a possible arrival before the end of the month - although many would no doubt question the wisdom and indeed the ethics of spending more money at this point.

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Leo Messi will be back after suspension in Rayo's Vallecas Stadium, while Koeman could give minutes to players such as Junior Firpo and Clement Lenglet, Francisco Trinaco as well as Miralem Pjanic.

However, he will no doubt remember his side's struggles in the last round when Barca needed extra time to get past third-tier Cornella after missing two penalties in the game.

Rayo have troubles of their own and although they are performing well under coach Andoni Iraola, who led Mirandes to the semifinals last season, the club has financial issues of their own.

Such is the relationship between the players and the board that the squad issued a communique complaining about a lack of communication after the last round of the Cup, which was shifted from Vallecas to Rayo's training ground and then to the headquarters of the Spanish Football Federation.

They were also unhappy about being forced to start a coach journey to play Mirandes in the middle of a snowstorm, which saw them become trapped in the snow before eventually being forced to turn around.

"Our lives are more important than three points," commented veteran midfielder Mario Suarez in the press.