Dani Olmo’s Barcelona future in the air over registration race
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Dani Olmo during a training session with Barcelona, as his future at the club remains uncertain.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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MADRID – Barcelona applied for new players’ licences for Dani Olmo and Pau Victor with the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) on Dec 31, just hours before the midnight deadline.
Olmo’s future at Barcelona was plunged into uncertainty as the Spanish La Liga poured cold water on the financially troubled Catalan giants’ frantic attempts to register the forward.
The league’s strict spending limits restricted Olmo’s initial registration to Dec 31, 2024 after Barcelona made the playmaker their flagship signing last summer.
The club were left scrambling for alternatives to get Olmo on the books before the clock struck midnight in Spain, having exhausted legal avenues to extend the registration to June 30, 2025.
In the latest development, Barcelona said on Dec 31 that they had requested a new licence from RFEF for Olmo and fellow forward Victor, who also faces the same registration predicament.
Spanish media reported that the move would buy Barcelona time to complete the administrative formalities. The club, however, have denied claims of requesting any delay from the governing bodies for their registrations.
“Barcelona informs that it has applied for a new licence for the players Daniel Olmo and Pau Victor to the RFEF,” they said. “The club wishes to deny that it has asked for or received any extension from any other organisation for the registration being requested.”
La Liga released a statement shortly afterwards saying that as at Dec 31, “Barcelona has presented no alternative” in complying with the league’s budget rules “that allows it to register any player from Jan 2”.
A source told ESPN that Barcelona will offer a deeper explanation on their player licence request to the RFEF and attempt to clear up the situation on Jan 3.
Barcelona had initially submitted documents to La Liga showing it would generate €100 million (S$141.3 million) to finance Olmo’s registration by selling VIP seats at its future expanded Camp Nou stadium, but the paperwork was advancing slowly, Spanish media said.
A Barcelona court had rejected a request to extend the registration on Dec 30, after a commercial court in the Catalan capital made the same decision last week.
The heavily indebted club registered Olmo with 80 per cent of injured defender Andreas Christensen’s pay, thanks to an exception in league budget rules allowing clubs to replace long-term absentees.
The commercial court argued that overspending was authorised to prevent a long-term injury from undermining a team’s competitiveness but not to register players whose wages exceeded the salary limit.
Olmo’s contract, set to run until 2030, includes a clause that would release him if he could not be registered, according to Spanish media. AFP, REUTERS
