As the Catalan team struggles to sign Spanish stars Dani Olmo and Pau Victor for the remaining La Liga 2024–25 season, Barcelona’s financial troubles are once again in the news.
Olmo left Bundesliga team RB Leipzig to join the Catalans prior to the 2024–25 season for an estimated 60 million euros.
However, Victor was permanently signed by Barcelona from its reserve squad.
What should Barca do to register Olmo and Victor?
Both players had to wait for their debuts shortly after the Spanish pair got to Catalan. Barcelona was prevented from signing new players because they did not follow La Liga’s salary cap regulations.
One rule, though, provided the side some short-term respite. The Spanish Premier League stipulates that a team may utilise 80% of a player’s wage to sign a new player if the player is sidelined for at least four months due to injury.
A few players were out for months at that time, such as Andreas Christensen and Ronald Araujo, who had surgery after suffering a hamstring injury during Copa America. These players’ salaries were released, and Olmo was signed for the first half of the season in Christensen’s place.
The return of Ilkay Gundogan to Manchester City and the loan of Clement Lenglet to Atletico Madrid were two other ways that Olmo’s registration could have been facilitated. Barcelona’s wage bill would have been lower as a result.
Victor has made 13 appearances this season, scoring twice and providing one assist, while Olmo has made 11 appearances and scored five goals in the league.
What has been the situation?
Until December 31, 2024, the temporary licenses remained in effect. Olmo and Victor are not listed as Barcelona players as of January 4.
La Liga applauded the club’s choice to have the court reject their plea to provisionally register him.
“LaLiga has today learned of the ruling… rejecting the request for the provisional registration of Dani Olmo until June 30, 2025, on the grounds that none of the necessary conditions for the adoption of an interim measure have been met,” the league said in a statement on December 27.
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“The ruling also stresses that: ‘The purpose of allowing additional spending is so that a long-term injury does not weaken the team’s competitiveness, not to use a long-term injury to allow the registration of players whose salaries exceed the limit, which is what FC Barcelona is attempting’,” the league added.
A day before the deadline (December 31), another appeal from the club was rejected. Shortly after this, Barcelona requested the Spanish FA for new players’ licences. The league too put out a statement. “La Liga informs that, as of today, December 31, FC Barcelona has not presented an alternative that, in compliance with La Liga’s economic control regulations, would allow it to register any player starting next January 2.”
