Tick, tick, tick – the clock you can currently hear is that in the Barcelona boardroom. It’s a scenario that no-one could ever have dreamed would be played out in Catalonia. Yet, as if we have seen so often in recent years, the La Liga giants are experiencing a financial reality which they are struggling to emerge from with wage caps and registration of players at its heart. All in all, the financial hotchpotch at the club appears as deep now as has it at any time over the past two and a half years.
Remember when Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba all reduced or deferred their salaries in order to help register Sergio Aguero and Memphis Depay? Or when 25 per cent of the club’s Barca’s future TV rights income were sold to help balance the books?
Their fans all hoped that such instances were now behind them and that they had got their financial house in order but it would appear not. Only on Monday this week, the club lost a second appeal to register Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor for the remainder of the season. They went on to apply for new players’ licences with the Spanish football federation on Tuesday, all while the club denied claims of requesting any delay from governing bodies for their registrations.
It begs the question, can the club comply with the league’s economic control regulations?
The registration deadline has now passed which means both players, should they wish, could terminate their contracts with immediate effect. Of course, neither want to. Olmo has been one of their star players in the first half of the season following a £45 million move from RB Leipzig in the summer.
The loss from both a sporting and financial perspective would be hugely embarrassing. Either way, the club would actually be forced to continue paying his salary, which runs through to 2030, while also covering the remaining $49.6 million owed to Leipzig for his transfer – a financial burden which would hit the club’s already strained resources hard.
At the time of writing, it has emerged the club is trying to raise funds by selling VIP box seats at the Nou Camp, potentially generating over €100 million which, subject to La Liga approval, will allow them to register both players. It all smacks of desperation to this Sbotop observer.
As the case has unfolded in recent weeks, it has been reported on several occasions that other Liga clubs have been pressuring La Liga President Javier Tebas to examine the matter in minute detail.
The opinion has been that the Blaugrana have been bending the rules of the salary limit in recent years and that La Liga have not taken the firm stance they should have.
We should know any day now and everyone connected to Barca will be desperate to resolve the situation and return to focusing on matters on the pitch.
This is a club which has enjoyed some real memorable victories so far this term, not least a 4-0 win in the first El Clasico of the campaign.
But if there are going to be La Liga 2025 highlights for Hansi Flick and his boys – our La Liga 2025 betting now makes them second favourites in a title race they once led by nine points (albeit having played a game more than their nearest rivals) – they will need the likes of Olmo at his best.
A poor run of form and a string of victories for the clubs from the capital have seen Atletico Madrid leapfrog them as table-toppers, while reigning champions Real Madrid are just a point behind them with two games in hand.
Whether the sideshow of Joan Laporta’s presidency is an unwelcome distraction is unclear, as he has remained determined throughout this saga that he will resolve outstanding financial issues to give the squad the best chance of succeeding.
It seems he will remain at the helm until at least 2026, which is when the next presidential elections will be held. But if it ends up being that Olmo and Victor are not registered, he will surely find it very difficult to be re-elected by Barcelona’s members.
With Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup action over the next fortnight, Barcelona do not return to La Liga duties until a visit to Getafe on January 18.
Should their registration issues have not been resolved by then, it could be the beginning of the end for Laporta who is now in his second tenure as club president.
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