Barcelona faces setback as Spanish League denies Dani Olmo's registration

The Spanish league and Spain's soccer federation on Saturday again denied Barcelona's request to register Dani Olmo and Pau Vctor for the rest of the season.

The players were only registered through the end of 2024 and Barcelona failed to meet the league's financial fair-play rules by the end-of-the-year deadline.

The league and the federation said in a joint statement that even though Barcelona eventually was able to meet the salary-cap rules, the players can't be registered again after already having been dropped because of the missed deadline.

Coach Hansi Flick said Friday he was not happy with the situation but had expressed confidence in the club to have the players registered. He spoke ahead of the team's Copa del Rey match against fourth-division club Barbastro on Saturday.

 

Barcelona could still try to go to the courts to register the players, though its previous attempts were all rejected.

Barcelona argued that the deadline for registering new players should be at the end of January, when the transfer windows closes, and not the end of December as the league currently requires.

Barcelona was able to finally increase its salary cap after reportedly receiving a payment on Friday of 100 million euros ($103 million) for VIP seats at the renovated Camp Nou stadium.

Each Spanish league club has a salary cap that is calculated based on a series of factors, including revenues, costs and debts. It is proportional to roughly 70% of a club's revenues.

Barcelona has endured difficulties registering some players recently because of its financial struggles. It has resorted to a series of financial levers in recent years, including the sale of future television rights. The club's financial struggles led to the departure of Lionel Messi in 2021.