Barcelona’s Dani Olmo and Pau Victor will miss the second half of the season for the LaLiga club, Spanish football officials announced on Saturday, denying the team’s most recent effort to prolong their registration.
Midfielder Olmo, 26, who contributed to Spain’s European Championship victory last year, has been a key player for Barcelona this season, while forward Victor, 23, has mainly had limited roles as a substitute.
Barca is now in third position in La Liga, five points behind champions Real Madrid.
In August, they secured Olmo from RB Leipzig on a six-year contract for approximately 55 million euros ($56.7 million) and Victor in July, but only registered them for the initial half of the season because of LaLiga wage cap restrictions.
The RFEF and LaLiga announced in a shared statement that they denied a request for both to be registered for the second half, explaining that a canceled license cannot be reinstated for a player by the same club during the same season.
“The RFEF stated that the Monitoring Committee has decided not to grant the requested prior approval or final licence for players Daniel Olmo Carvajal and Pau Victor Delgado by FC Barcelona.”
Two courts had earlier denied the club’s appeals.
APPRECIATED LEGAL DECISIONS
LaLiga had earlier embraced the legal decisions, stating that increased expenditures are permitted as long-term injuries do not diminish a team’s strength, but the regulation should not be misused to permit the registration of players whose wages surpass the allowed limit.
The club successfully registered Olmo after lengthy injuries sidelined first team players from the squad for months, enabling Barca to dedicate part of the wages to register the player who was a joint top scorer at the Euros.
Medios españoles informaron que Barcelona tiene la intención de presentar una queja al gobierno español a través del Tribunal Administrativo del Deporte (CSD) en un último intento por permitir que la pareja juegue.
Barcelona did not provide any immediate comment.
On Friday, Barcelona manager Hansi Flick expressed dissatisfaction with the situation but stayed hopeful that the club would discover a resolution.
Neither Olmo nor Victor was included in the squad for Barca’s Copa del Rey game against the fourth-tier team Barbastro later on Saturday.
The profiles of both players have been taken off the LaLiga website and are now replaced by the message: “We do not have any information on this player.”
Reports indicated that Olmo has a provision in his contract allowing him to depart as a free agent, as he cannot be loaned to another team without proper registration.
This isn’t the first instance of Barca missing the chance to register an important player, as the Catalan club notoriously allowed Lionel Messi to depart in 2021, despite the Argentine forward’s desire to prolong his tenure at the team where he began his career.
At that moment, president Joan Laporta stated that Messi’s elevated salary, along with LaLiga’s stringent financial regulations, might have threatened Barcelona’s future.
