S Poddar
Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor have been allowed to stay and play for Barcelona through the end of the season after the Spanish sports council (CSD) supported the club’s appeal. The decision reverses La Liga’s previous move to unregister them over the club’s noncompliance with the 31 December financial control deadline.
The move comes after La Liga recently stated that Barcelona is still non-compliant with salary cap rules. The league has also expressed concerns over a missing €100m from the club’s accounts, and there are plans to report Barcelona’s former auditors.
Following a three-month analysis, the CSD determined that the joint commission established by La Liga and the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) had no power to stop Olmo and Víctor from being registered. The decision invalidates the RFEF-La Liga accord and guarantees the two players to remain registered up to 30 June. But Barcelona will have to settle its financial fair play (FFP) issues if it is to get their registration for next season.
On Wednesday, La Liga put more doubt on Barcelona’s financial situation, alleging the club had failed to meet what is referred to as the “1:1 ratio,” where a club can spend one euro on every euro generated. In January, Barcelona had been thought to have achieved this milestone following a €100m investment agreement for VIP boxes at the new Camp Nou. Yet this revenue now does not feature in the club’s most recent profit and loss accounts.
In a desperate attempt to legitimize its financial situation within the deadline, Barcelona hired new auditors on 31 December. Spanish news agency Cadena Ser reported that the Catalan company Abauding was temporarily engaged following the resignation of Grant Thornton. Crowe Auditores later took charge and compiled the final accounts presented to La Liga following the closure of the transfer window. Nevertheless, La Liga alleges that these audited accounts omit the €100m investment.
La Liga released a statement stating that Barcelona did not have the financial margin necessary to meet FFP requirements as of 31 December, 3 January, and today. The league has now demanded a thorough inquiry by the CSD and plans to report the auditors who certified the €100m revenue to the Institute of Accounting and Accounts Auditing (ICAC).
Barcelona president Joan Laporta rejected the allegations as a concerted effort to destabilize the club. “This is no coincidence,” Laporta said. “It is another attempt to disturb us.”
On 31 December, La Liga initially declared that Barcelona had not complied with financial control rules, meaning the club remained above its €426m wage cap. Consequently, Olmo and Víctor’s provisional registrations, awarded in August, lapsed, and both players were dropped from the squad.
In return, Barcelona asserted that a last-minute €100m sale of VIP boxes in the refurbished Camp Nou had been concluded with Middle Eastern investors. Club vice-president Elena Fort acknowledged that she was unaware of the names of the two parties to the deal. Later, Laporta named them as one Qatari firm and another Saudi Arabian one, although he refused to name them.
While La Liga first acknowledged the revenue on 3 January after an auditor’s certification, a temporary increase of Barcelona’s wage bill to €463m, the required documentation was not in time to re-register Olmo and Víctor. According to RFEF rules, a player cannot be registered twice in the same year, keeping Barcelona from having them back on the list of squads.
The Commission responsible for La Liga and RFEF relations then officially decided that the two players could not be registered, a ruling that Barcelona unsuccessfully challenged through two court appeals. But the club finally convinced the CSD to issue a temporary injunction, on the grounds that preventing the players’ participation would result in irreparable damage to them as well as Spanish football overall.
Barcelona filed a 60-page response, claiming the Commission had no right to rule in such a manner. Yesterday, the CSD supported Barcelona’s argument, dismissing La Liga and RFEF’s reasoning that the Commission had simply transmitted decisions from governing bodies.
The CSD made clear that its decision does not invalidate the salary cap system introduced by La Liga, although a number of clubs worry that the decision could undermine the financial control system. Importantly, the ruling did not consider the €100m transfer, which is still queried by La Liga, and treated it as a connected but distinct issue.
Barcelona has not made an official response to La Liga’s recent statement, and the future of the financial drama remains uncertain.
