Barcelona will register Olmo and Victor by January; have €120m Plan B if judicial route fails

As we get closer and closer to the January transfer window, the matter of the registrations of Barcelona stars Pau Victor and Dani Olmo is dominating the headlines.

The duo’s registration in La Liga is valid only until December 31 and they will need to be re-registered again for the second half of the season, with Barça working on various options to get it done.

As confirmed recently, Barcelona have taken the judicial route to register Olmo and Victor by seeking a precautionary measure from the court, as they did with Gavi back in 2023.

Barcelona not concerned

Now, SPORT reports that there is no concern within Barcelona regarding the registrations of Olmo and Victor.

The club does not fear that they will be ineligible from 1 January. After the hearing at the Commercial Court No. 10 in Barcelona on Monday, the decision is now in the hands of the judge, who will determine whether to grant the temporary ruling.

La Liga, which sent a team of more than four lawyers to the Catalan capital for the hearing with the judge, argues that the temporary ruling should not be granted to Barça.

On the other hand, the Blaugrana claim that they have been in weekly contact with La Liga since the beginning of the season, and that the league had initially conveyed that the signing of the Nike contract would be sufficient to meet the 1:1 rule.

However, Barça was surprised when the outline of the aforementioned contract was sent, and La Liga informed them that they still lacked €60 million to match the salary cap.

The Catalan club believes this is the result of pressure from other clubs, including Atletico Madrid, Athletic Club, and Sevilla. This led Barcelona to the conclusion that judicial action would be taken, as happened two years ago with Gavi’s case.

Barcelona’s argument

Barcelona have argued that labour law takes precedence over any other regulations, meaning that a player with a contract cannot be prevented from practising his profession.

The issue of Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s absence has also been raised. Barça claim that there is an unused portion of the German’s salary, and with that excess, the club could register both Olmo and Victor.

However, La Liga asserts that the Catalans already used the salary cap space when they signed Wojciech Szczesny. They argue that it is Barça’s responsibility for not using the entire salary space and that their rules take precedence over any other.

Plan B in place

Joan Laporta & co. have expressed neither optimism nor pessimism regarding the judge’s ruling, which is expected to be announced on 27 December.

In fact, during the regular board meeting held on Monday, Plan B was discussed – the sale of Spotify Camp Nou VIP seat packages.

Initially, the plan was to sell this package for around €200 million, but it has been decided that, if the judge does not grant the temporary ruling for the registrations of Olmo and Pau Victor, the sale of a smaller package to a Qatari company for €120 million will be activated.

With this amount, not only would the 1:1 rule be met and Olmo and Víctor registered, but it would also allow the renewals of Pedri and Gavi to be carried out, along with even a possible signing, though this is currently ruled out.

As for the players, Barcelona have been in constant contact with them and their representatives for some time. They are calm, and the club has assured them that their registrations from 1 January are not at risk.