Barcelona are not currently able to register Dani Olmo to play in La Liga despite signing him last week.
On Friday (August 9) Barcelona confirmed the signing of Spanish playmaker Dani Olmo from RB Leipzig, for a fee of £51 million.
The 26-year-old, who starred for Spain at Euro 2024 with three goals and two assists, signed a six-year contract at Camp Nou which includes a £429m release clause.
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However, it looks unlikely that the Masia academy graduate will be able to make his return in Barcelona's La Liga opener against Valencia on Friday.
That's because, according to Cadena Ser, Barca cannot currently afford to register Olmo to play in La Liga.
While Spanish clubs are free to spend what they like on transfers, La Liga has strict financial regulations when it comes to registering players to play in the league.
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Each club is essentially assigned a salary cap ahead of each season, a figure calculated using the club's revenues.
Once the salary cap is reached, the online player registration system does not allow any new names to be inputed until adequate wage space is freed up.
As reported by Ser, Barcelona find themselves in a situation where they need to sell players in order to register others, including new signing Olmo.
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As things stand, several other players including Inigo Martinez and Vitor Roque will not be registered in time for the season opener on Friday.
Barcelona's financial issues are well documented, but the current situation might have been avoided if one of the 'financial levers' club president Joan Laporta pulled had worked.
German company Libero initially acquired 25 per cent of Barca Studios, the club's in-house audiovisual production company.
The sale was valued at 100 million euros, but Libero later backed out of the deal by allegedly refusing to pay.
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Another company, Aramark, stepped in to pay 40m euros, but the remaining 60m euros has not been paid.
However, according to reports, even when the full amount is paid Barcelona will still be in the position of needing to raise more money than they spend.
Barcelona faced a similar situation with Ilkay Gundogan last summer, but ultimately managed to register the former Manchester City captain with La Liga.
The club still retains hope of signing Spanish winger Nico Williams from Athletic Club.
Topics: Barcelona, La Liga, Transfer News
Alex Brotherton