Barcelona president reveals the story behind Olmo, Victor registration saga – ‘To get to this point…’ | OneFootball

The past few weeks have been turbulent for Barcelona, particularly for Joan Laporta and Co.

After all, the administration failed to register Dani Olmo and Pau Victor in time for the second half of the season after their return to the 1:1 rule was delayed by a few days.

For a brief period, it appeared that both players would have to leave the club as free agents but a drastic turn of events finally saw the cards dealt Laporta’s way and the registrations approved.

Laporta speaks on the finances

Speaking to the media earlier today, FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta provided an in-depth update on the club’s financial situation at present and the saga of Dani Olmo and Pau Victor’s registration.

He first began by celebrating the fact that Barcelona had returned to the 1:1 rule after years, saying,

“We have returned to the 1:1 rule, and this allows us to sign normally and register players like Olmo and Pau Victor.”

“To get to this point, we signed contracts like Nike, which is the best in the world of sportswear,” he added.

Elaborating on the Nike contract, he spoke on why the confirmation of the deal was delayed to such an extent.

“If we had signed with Nike in the summer, we would not have received more than the €300 million that we managed to improve during this period.”

He then provided a brief summary of all the events that occurred in the registration saga of Olmo and Victor.

“We prepared and submitted the documents to La Liga on December 27, sending them in time for the end of the year. Between the 28th to 31st, La Liga asked us to provide some additional documents.”

Registered again. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

He then went on to reveal how the club was confident they were financially stable enough to register the duo and how it all fell apart at the nth moment.

“On December 31, we believed that we were fully compliant with the Financial Stability Regulations and had achieved the 1:1 rule.”

“However, the league had a different opinion and asked us for additional requirements that, in our opinion, were not in the regulations. Therefore, it did not grant us the 1:1 rule,” he added.

Laporta then revealed that the board even contacted the RFEF to grant the players a license to continue and how they did not respond optimally either.

“In parallel, we had already submitted a request to the Spanish Football Federation to extend the players’ license.”

“The Federation told us that the 1:1 rule was necessary, but did not see any obstacle in principle to processing the extension,” he elaborated.

The president then made it clear why Olmo and Victor were not granted registrations and how La Liga and RFEF had a part to play.

“Due to the application of an old legal article, which we were told by the League and the Federation is no longer valid, a joint committee between the League and the Federation decided not to grant licenses.”

Giving his verdict on the aforementioned rule, Laporta said,

“In our view, this decision was not correct, because this article was created primarily to ensure the stability of the competition, which is its main objective.”

“However, it was intended to prevent players from being registered with more than one club during the same season according to changing circumstances, which did not apply in our case at all,” he added.

Pau Victor also registered again. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

Barcelona then explored a new route, the salary allocated for Marc-Andre ter Stegen that had been removed from calculations after the German suffered a season-ending injury.

“When Ter Stegen got injured, our legal team started launching a series of claims based on the interpretation of the regulation.”

“The savings that resulted from Ter Stegen’s absence due to a long-term injury, as you know, should have allowed us to register Dani Olmo and Pau Victor,” he added.

Providing an update on how the registrations finally went through, the club president said,

“On January 3, we completed all the documentation and obtained La Liga approval in terms of Financial Fair Play rules.”

“We then submitted the application for the licenses to the Spanish Federation, but it was stopped due to the application of an old article in the regulations,” he added.

Finally, he revealed the role of the CSD in enabling the registrations and the precautionary measures being implemented.

“We approached the Supreme Council for Sports (CSD), requesting an urgent precautionary measure, given the difficult-to-compensate damage in this case.”

“The CSD and the State Bar Association assessed the request and approved the extremely important precautionary measure,” he added.

It is now well known that the club returned to the 1:1 rule only after a sale of a portion of the VIP seats at Spotify Camp Nou. On that topic, Laporta said,

“Of the 9,600 VIP seats, we allocated 425, which is about 5%. One company got 360 seats, while another got 75 seats, to cover the amount we needed to register Olmo and Pau Victor.”

Source: Mundo Deportivo