Dani Olmo, 26, and Pau Victor, 23, Barcelona’s two summer signings, are no longer registered in La Liga as players for the Catalan club, is the news at the start of the year that is shaking world football.
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How did such a big club end up on the brink? He was there before, when Lionel Messi left. The Spanish press published today writes that it is a chaotic and very complex situation. Barcelona still hope to re-register Olmo and Victor and, in this regard, have asked the Football Federation, through a new address, for a response that should arrive on January 3.
Barcelona currently has an image damage and there could be a colossal economic damage as well: if Olmo and Victor are not signed, they will be free to sign for free with another club, Barça will be obliged to pay their contracts for the whole the signed period, and as far as Dani Olmo is concerned, the 60 million euros remain to be paid as a transfer fee.
To understand how it got to this point, we need to go back in time, this summer. Basic man for the Spanish national team, Dani Olmo was brought from Leipzig, and Pau Victor from Girona. However, the two cannot be enrolled because their salaries exceed the established salary limits.
Barça can resort to a trick, thanks to the injury of the Dane Christensen. In case of a long-term injury, the equivalent of 80% of the salary of the player who remains off the field can be added (temporarily) to the team’s salary table. But only until December 31.
Barça Vision blew a hole in the budget
Barça had 3 months to find the necessary money. The Catalan club is in this situation because, a year earlier, it had sold part of its TV rights, the Barça Vision operation, to a company that then failed to pay the agreed 40 million euros. An expensive and stinging fraud.
President Joan Laporta has always shown incurable optimism, and with the good sporting start of Hansi Flick’s Barca, the Olmo-Victor issue was hidden under the rug. Barça were negotiating a lucrative renewal of the agreement with sponsor Nike and the management was sure that this would solve everything. The contract with the American giant has been signed, but for La Liga there are not enough guarantees to close the economic hole.
Laporta has also taken the measure of selling Camp Nou’s VIP boxes (currently closed for restoration, with work not due to be completed before 2027, even though the stadium could be partially reopened in 2025) to an Arab group for the next 20 years. The operation ended in the last days of 2024, with the documents sent to the League against the clock. It wasn’t enough. That’s how we got to yesterday’s crazy day, the last of 2024 and the last in which Olmo and Victor could be registered.
Barcelona’s huge economic problems could block the talks related to a transfer of Andrei Rațiu from Rayo Vallecano (the asking amount is 25 million euros), but it could also affect the situation of the academy that the Catalan group recently opened in Bucharest and managed by Florin Răducioiu.
