BARCELONA stars Dani Olmo and Pau Victor face being booted out of the club’s squad for the rest of the season – after Spanish league bosses uncovered an alleged financial ruse to allow them to play.
LaLiga okayed the further registration of the pair in January after the club announced the sale of 475 VIP seats in the rebuilt Camp Nou – still due to open before the end of this season – to a number of Middle East investors.
The 30-year deals were said to have pumped £84million into the club’s finances, allowing them to meet LaLiga balance sheet rules.
It has now emerged that the paperwork confirming the deal was completed by a temporary accountant appointed by the club on December 31 after its arrangement with global firm Grant Thornton ran out.
But when Barcelona’s new full-time accountancy firm, Crowe Spain, reported the official figures for this season by last month’s deadline, NONE of that sum was included.
In a damning statement, LaLiga announced: “On January 3 2025, a certificate issued by the club’s new auditor was provided, recognising that the transaction was correctly recorded as income in the club’s Profit and Loss account for the current season.
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“This documentation was necessary and essential to validate the accounting.
“Without these certificates, it would not have been possible for Barcelona to register players with LaLiga.
“Subsequently, in its Interim Financial Statements referring to the first half of the current season, no amount of the aforementioned corporate operation is finally recorded in the Profit and Loss account.
“That is contrary to what had been certified by the Club and the auditor at the time of the execution of said operation.”
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The result was LaLiga informing Barcelona that the £84m leeway had been knocked off its spending limits for this season, with both players officially “unregistered”, while the auditor involved in January has been reported to Spain’s financial watchdog.
It puts the immediate playing future of the pair in the hands of the Spanish government, through its Sports Council, which is due to make a ruling in the coming days.
Barca are pinning their hopes on the Sports Council arguing that players have a right to work and that deregistering them now would unfairly prevent them from doing so.
But it could see further problems beyond a likely block on new signings this summer unless there are major sales to fill the financial void.
Real Madrid currently trail Barca by three points but would be likely to argue that their rivals’ position has been illegally strengthened by being able to field players who LaLiga now agrees should not have been available for selection.
Olmo has played in seven LaLiga games – bringing six wins and a draw – plus three matches in the Copa del Rey, one in the Spanish Super Cup and two in the Champions League since his registration was confirmed in January.
Victor has appeared in five games in total this year.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
