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Topics: Barcelona, La Liga, Transfer News, Football
Luke Davies
A Barcelona player could essentially be blocked from playing until January if a nightmare scenario occurs before the end of the summer transfer window.
Barcelona’s La Liga title defence has got off to a perfect start with Hansi Flick’s side building on their opening game week victory over Mallorca with a 3-2 comeback win against Levante on Saturday.
The Catalans went in at half-time trailing by two goals thanks to strikes from Ivan Romero and Jose Morales.
Manchester United loanee, Marcus Rashford, was withdrawn during the interval before being replaced by Dani Olmo.
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Pedri pulled one back on 49 minutes before Ferran Torres levelled the scores on 52 minutes. Then, in second-half stoppage time, Levante’s Unai Elgezabal scored an own goal to hand the away side all three points.
And despite Barca’s players more often than not providing an exciting and positive spectacle when they take to the field, the club’s off-the-pitch problems continue to rumble on in the background.
In August 2024, Barca signed Spain international Olmo from RB Leipzig and were initially unable to register him to play due to the club’s financial situation and not being able to meet La Liga’s wage cap restrictions.
A court rejected two appeals from Barcelona to register the midfielder temporarily, but he was eventually registered as a ‘special exemption’, which allowed him to play during the first half of the season.
In January 2025, he was registered for La Liga.
This summer, Rashford was initially not registered ahead of the 2025/26 campaign, but the club completed a series of deals in order to create salary space before the England international was then registered in time for the Mallorca clash.
New signing Joan Garcia was also allowed to be registered after La Liga granted permission to use the salary space allocated for the injured Marc-André ter Stegen, according to ESPN.
However, Mundo Deportivo (MD) reports that the La Liga 1:1 rule, which relates to overall salaries compared to revenues, may pose a risk to Olmo’s registration once again.
The outlet claims that “everything could change on September 1st as a result of the pending ruling by the National Court.”
According to MD, the ruling on the ongoing 1:1 dilemma will be made on September 1 – the final day of the transfer window.
If the National Court rules in favour of Barca, the player’s current registration will remain valid without issues.
However, if the court sides with La Liga, the club will be forced to deregister Olmo and then at least attempt to re-register him before the transfer window closes at 7 pm BST on September 1.
As per MD, any ruling against Barca would mean they may be unable to register Olmo until the winter transfer window, which opens on January 2.