OFFICIAL! FC Barcelona secures the registration of Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor

¡The 'soap opera' is over! Finally, this Friday FC Barcelona has been able to register Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor in LaLiga. Joan Laporta had remained calm and confident in obtaining it, and finally, he received the green light from LaLiga and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).

It was this Friday when the league finally finished reviewing the additional documentation sent by the Barça regarding the sale of a portion of the VIP seats at Spotify Camp Nou; a 'lever' that has brought in around 100-120 million euros into the club's coffers. On Tuesday, the league rejected the agreement that Barça reached with investors from Qatar and Dubai due to a lack of guarantees backing the sale of this asset.

Initially, the club was required to resolve this operation before midnight on December 31, but it clung to article 130.2 of the General Regulations of the RFEF, which grants exceptional deadlines for registering players outside the usual time. Fortunately, the blue and garnet team managed to save the registrations of both players at the last minute thanks to a strategic move, and finally, both Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor are back in the squad and licensed to play in club and national team matches.

The Barça's calculations to resolve the 'Olmo case'

Thus, the Barça was expected to receive immediately between 20 (if the agreement was closed for 100M€) and 24 million (if it was closed for 120M€) immediately from the sale of the boxes, while from now until June, they need to bring in 40 or 44 million euros to meet the deadlines set by LaLiga. In the end, the competition will only count the revenues recorded during the first 18 months following the agreement to calculate 'Fair Play', meaning the club will only gain between 85M€ and 102M€ from this concept, enough money to settle the outstanding payments from the sale of Barça Vision.

On Thursday, Laporta finished reviewing the details of the 'Olmo case' with the sports vice president Rafa Yuste and treasurer Ferran Olivé, along with the club's financial director, Manel del Río. The Barça announced that the decision would be known during the morning of Friday, hours before Hansi Flick held his first press conference of 2025, scheduled for 1:00 PM at the Ciutat Esportiva, prior to the trip to Huesca to face UD Barbastro in the Copa del Rey.

The enormous losses FC Barcelona would have suffered if Dani Olmo had become a free agent

The loss of Dani Olmo would have represented millions in losses for FC Barcelona for various reasons. For example, the club still owes approximately 48 M€ corresponding to the fixed contract signed last summer with the talented midfielder.

Additionally, Barcelona still has to pay RB Leipzig the transfer fee for Dani Olmo, which was closed at 55 M€ and apparently could not have been amortized over the next six years. In this fiscal year, instead of the nine million that should have been amortized, the remaining 46 million that are still owed from that negotiation would have been added to the losses.

Moreover, losing a player whose current market value is around 60 M€ would also negatively impact Barcelona, which would have gained considerable profit in the event of a transfer, which is now, fortunately, possible. A catastrophic and dangerous scenario for the club, which has ultimately been overcome.

The problems in registering Dani Olmo and the difficulties in closing financial agreements represented a financial blow of more than 250 million euros for Barça:

• 55 million from the signing of Dani Olmo
• 60 million for not being able to sell the player
• 50 million in salary that Dani Olmo could claim.
• 100 million expected from the sale of the VIP boxes, which were up in the air

OK thanks to article 130.2 and the cause of "force majeure"

The only option that FC Barcelona had to register the two players and thus avoid the worst imaginable scenario was to cling to the current regulations based on article 130.2 of the regulations justifying a case of “force majeure.”

And although article 130.2 of the General Regulations of the RFEF states that “a player can only be registered with one team of a club, without the possibility of being deregistered and registered again by the same team during the same season,” fortunately, it included two exceptions that could be applied in this specific case: case of force majeure or regulatory provision. Two ambiguous exceptions open to free interpretation.