BARCELONA — There was applause in Barcelona‘s offices on Friday as a first payment of €28 million from the €100m sale of VIP boxes at Spotify Camp Nou arrived. Though the stadium is not yet operational, as it is being renovated ahead of a partial re-opening later this year, Barça had hoped the money raised would serve to register star signing Dani Olmo and young forward Pau Víctor with LaLiga for the second half of the season.
A source confirmed to ESPN that the deal should finally help Barça operate within LaLiga’s financial fair play regulations [FFP]. The problem is that the money arrived too late.
It is the latest chapter in an ongoing drama which has created the very real possibility of Olmo, a €60m signing from RB Leipzig last summer, and Víctor (a €3m arrival from Girona) not being able to play for Barça again this season. Right now, that is the case as things stand. LaLiga unregistered the duo on Wednesday after Barça missed a deadline of Dec. 31 to prove they were compliant with FFP, then the league and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) released a statement on Jan. 4 to say they had rejected a follow-up request to re-register the duo.
That is why, as Barça president Joan Laporta and his closest advisors celebrated Friday’s cash injection, other sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN there was “surprise” at the club’s optimism because the deadline has quite clearly passed.
Barça have been running the risk of failing to register some of their players due to financial problems for over three years now. Laporta inherited a club steeped in €1.2 billion of debt from his predecessor, Josep Maria Bartomeu, when he returned for a second spell in office in 2021. And, since then, following Lionel Messi‘s departure that summer because his new contract could not be registered, Barça have used different methods (or “levers”) to register signings while complying with the league’s regulations. There have been wage cuts, the sale of club assets, directors providing bank guarantees and court cases.
The club have always managed to pull something off at the 11th hour, but that may not be the case this time. Another court battle awaits.
The asset sales continued with 49% of Barça Studios being sold to Socios.com and Orpheus Media for a combined €200m. That, combined with the television rights deals, allowed for Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha, whose arrivals cost the club over €100m, and free agents Christensen and Franck Kessié to be registered. It was not enough, however, to register defender Jules Koundé, signed from Sevilla for over €50m — though the Frenchman was eventually registered after directors provided a bank guarantee against future earnings.
In 2023, Barça successfully sought a court order to allow academy star Gavi’s registration to be transferred from the youth team to the first team.
The club then re-sold some of the shares in Barça Studios, now rebranded as Barça Vision, to a company called Libero, who purchased a 29.5% stake in the subsidiary for €120m. That deal was sufficient at the time to register Ilkay Gündogan, Iñigo Martínez and Oriol Romeu. However, the money from Libero never actually arrived and is one of the major reasons LaLiga have been so prudent in wanting to see proof of funds from the recent sale of the VIP boxes.
Another bank guarantee from directors was then required to register loan signings João Félix (from Atletico) and João Cancelo (Man City), while long-term injuries to Gavi, Ronald Araújo, Christensen and Ter Stegen have now all been utilised to help push through temporary registrations. It makes for a remarkable list and illustrates how close Barça have been to failing to register key players for years.
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What next for Olmo and Víctor?
For now, Barça are adamant they will solve the situation. A source told ESPN that Laporta will not speak publicly until Olmo and Víctor are registered.
And if they aren’t? “That scenario is not being considered,” the source added.
With the extra €28m now in the bank, Barça argued that certain hold-ups prevented them from meeting the Dec. 31 deadline and applied for a new licence for both players with the RFEF. However, RFEF rules clearly state that players cannot be re-registered with the same team for the second time in the same season, with a source at the RFEF also telling ESPN they “cannot process any licence without prior approval from LaLiga” regardless. A source close to the club added that Barça argued against the interpretation of that rule in this scenario.
With the latest rejection, Barça will take their case to court.
But Olmo and Víctor face being left in no-man’s land for at least six months. One option is that the players stay at Barça and train, as they have continued to do this week, but be unavailable for selection.
Olmo has a clause in his contract which allows him to leave for free if he remains unregistered, but sources close to the player have always insisted he does not plan to exercise it. His agent, Andy Bara, reiterated that point on Friday, saying Olmo is only thinking about a future at Barça, the club he played for until he was 16 before leaving for Dinamo Zagreb.
However, that stance may have to be re-considered. Due to no longer having a licence with the RFEF, after his registration was cancelled, even a short-term move away would be complicated. A loan would not be possible as it requires a prior license with a parent club. Therefore, a complicated agreement would have to be struck where Olmo’s contract is rescinded, allowing him to join another club for six months before returning to Barça to re-sign in the summer.
Víctor’s case would be similar, with sources telling ESPN that Real Betis, Espanyol and several clubs from the Segunda Division have asked to be informed if a short-term exit becomes a possibility.
Bizarrely, if both registrations are not processed, Barça could even find themselves in a situation this month whereby they are not able to re-register Olmo or Víctor, but they are allowed to sign players from elsewhere.
