Barcelona are planning to file a complaint to the Spanish government in their final attempt to register Dani Olmo and Pau Victor.
That will come after both La Liga and RFEF (Spanish FA) have not acceded to change their stance and proceed to re-register both players.
La Liga sources, speaking anonymously like all in this article in order to protect relationships, told The Athletic there are no changes on their end from the statement the league released on December 31.
RFEF sources told The Athletic their organisation is unable to execute a license without La Liga’s green light and, therefore, there is no update from them either.
Barcelona sources say they believe this is not a definitive response from RFEF yet but internally they expect no changes on that front so they are already planning an alternative route: filing a complaint to the Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD), the highest sports institution subscribed to the Spanish Government, club sources say.
This could be a case of a long-awaited resolution but Barcelona’s hope is that, given the potential harm that waiting time up until a final resolution can provide to the club with the departure of both players, they receive temporary permission for Olmo and Victor to be re-registered. A CSD decision to that end would overrule the RFEF and La Liga.
Meanwhile, Barcelona announced late on Friday night that the sale of their VIP seating was completed. After La Liga checked all the documents, they approved that Barca are no longer under severe registration limitations.
However, that has not changed La Liga´s stance on Olmo and Victor as the deadline to extend their licenses (December 31) has already passed. There are no further details from the club on who the sponsors are who paid for the VIP seating nor the conditions of that deal.
Victor joined Barcelona permanently from Girona last summer (Jaime Reina/AFP via Getty Images)
Earlier on Friday, Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick told a press conference he was “unhappy” with the situation as he awaited an update on the availability of the two players. On Saturday morning, Barcelona’s squad announcement confirmed that neither had been included in the travelling party for the Copa del Rey round-of-32 game at lower league Barbastro.
The Catalan club lost their second appeal for the precautionary registration of Olmo, 26, and Victor, 23, on December 30 after their initial court appeal had failed three days earlier.
Typically, La Liga grants licenses to players for the duration of their contracts but Olmo and Victor were given only temporary permits for registration until the end of December to allow the club time to prove fresh revenue streams.
On December 31, Barca sources said they had successfully submitted the documentation about their VIP seating sale to La Liga, but the competition confirmed they did not receive a payment proof of the transaction before the end of the year, and considered their deadline expired.”
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Barcelona were able to temporarily register the players due to long-term injuries at the club. If a club lose a player to injury for at least four months, La Liga rules allow them to allocate 80 per cent of that player’s salary in the club’s allowance to register another player.
Ronald Araujo required surgery on a hamstring injury that kept him out for five months while Andreas Christensen and later Marc-Andre ter Stegen were also long-term absentees, creating space for the registrations of Inigo Martinez, new signing Wojciech Szczesny and temporary registrations for Olmo and Victor.
In November, Barcelona announced a new sponsorship deal with Nike and in December began to explore using funds from the long-term sale of VIP boxes at the refurbished Camp Nou — which is yet to reopen — to meet financial fair play rules and extend the two players’ registrations for the second half of the season.
Barca have been confident that their proof of payment for the VIP box sales will meet La Liga’s financial demands and that once all the relevant documents have been received by the league it will enable them to end this saga around Olmo and Victor.
A source at La Liga, who asked to remain anonymous as they did not want to comment publicly on the matter, suggested to The Athletic that Olmo and Victor cannot be re-registered “through normal channels” and pointed to RFEF regulations which prevent a player being de-registered and then re-registered within the same season.
Barcelona’s financial situation has been impacted by the delay in the construction work at the Camp Nou, with the club continuing to play at Montjuic. The club had been hoping to return to their home stadium this calendar year, but this now may not happen until the 2025-26 season.
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(Top photo: Oscar J. Barroso/Europa Press via Getty Images)
