According to La Liga regulations, Dani Olmo may no longer be eligible to play for Barcelona from the beginning of 2025. The former Leipzig man could even leave for free after moving to Camp Nou last summer for £50 million.
La Liga sets spending ceilings for each team, in line with revenue, along with debt calculations. If a team spends more than the limit, they are forced to reduce their salary or find an additional source of income if they want to register new players. Barca have been pushing the spending limit for a long time. They have let some players leave the team to supplement or cut costs. However, that is still not enough to successfully register Dani Olmo.
La Liga 2024-2025 starts on August 17, but Barca will have to wait until the third match to debut Dani Olmo. Not only Olmo, Inigo Martinez, Marc Casado and Pau Victor could not start with the first team on the opening day for many different reasons. In the end, it was only when Ronald Araujo and Andreas Christensen were seriously injured and had long breaks that they were registered as additional players.
La Liga rules state that if a club loses a player due to injury, determined to be out for 4 months or more, that team is allowed to use 80% of the injured player's salary to pay for a rookie. Araujo suffered a hamstring injury while participating in the Copa America with Uruguay and was sidelined for 5 months. After that, Barca used that gap in costs to register 3 young stars: Inigo Martinez, Marc Casado and Pau Victor.
As for Olmo, he was registered because on August 27, Barca reported Christensen's injury to La Liga. It is not clear how serious the Danish star's injury is, but Barca confirmed that he will be out for a long time and the club does not want to wait at least 4 months. Almost immediately, Olmo was registered as an additional player in the context that on August 30, if he still could not be introduced, the former Leipzig star could leave immediately.
However, trouble is still hanging on Barca because Christensen's 80% salary is too little compared to Olmo's salary, especially when the Spanish star has signed a 6-year contract with Blaugrana. After negotiations, Barca was allowed to "temporarily" use Olmo in the first half of the season, both using and finding a compensation plan, but as December 31, 2024 is approaching, they have not yet found any other source of income to handle this case.
Barca is expected to announce a new sponsorship deal from Nike early next week. However, even if this contract is successful, it is still not enough to handle Olmo's case. Up to now, Dani Olmo's side has remained calm, they understand that if there is any reaction at this time, it will only make the situation more complicated and they also know that Barca is trying very hard to handle it.
In the worst case, Olmo will not be able to play anymore from January 1, 2025. If this midfielder accepts to stay at Barca, it is also a possibility, but how long he will wait is something no one can answer. Olmo is at the peak of his career, he certainly does not want to stay at Camp Nou without being able to play for such a long time.
Not to mention that Olmo's case has another negative detail, which is that his license to play in La Liga is only valid until December 31, 2024. Normally, when a player is allowed to play in La Liga, that license will be valid for the same period as the contract with the home team expires. If Barca successfully turn around the money to save Olmo this time, they will have to re-register the 26-year-old star from the beginning.
The problem also comes with the status of competing in international tournaments. If Olmo had not been licensed to play in La Liga, he would not have played in the Champions League. UEFA only allows a player to play in the Champions League if he is eligible to play in a domestic league. In addition, Copa Del Rey and the Supercopa next month will not welcome Olmo if he is not successfully registered by Barca.
Currently, Barca is trying to resolve the sale of the rights to use Barca Studios. This was once considered a financial lever for the team to have money to cover expenses, but the deal to buy ownership of Barca Studios failed before this season, contrary to previous calculations. Not only that, Barca is also selling VIP seats at the new Camp Nou stadium and hopes that it can bring in hundreds of millions of pounds if successfully purchased in the long term.
