With their weekend fixture against Athletic Club slated to go live on Saturday, a player stays in the headlines despite uncertainties concerning his registration. Dani Olmo, a 26-year-old attacking midfielder signed from RB Leipzig for an initial €55 million ($61.6 million), will be in the squad list. This will, however, be subject to the completion of his registration with LaLiga, which is currently suspended due to Barcelona's financial issues.
Barcelona's Financial Struggles and Registration Hurdles
Barcelona has suffered financially in the past seasons, as this has often affected their new signings' process of registration. The team still faces financial problems that have kept them overshooting their league-set annual spending limit. Such a limit is calculated using a formula that removes non-sporting team expenditure and debt repayments from the revenue. The current situation means Barcelona must either reduce their wage bill or find a way to grow revenues in order to meet LaLiga's demands for registration.
This financial quagmire meant Olmo missed Barcelona's opening-day win over Valencia last weekend. Despite this setback, the club has named Olmo in the squad for the fixture with Athletic Club. Barcelona's official position is that Olmo's involvement is "pending the player registration being completed with LaLiga." That would indicate, while his name was on the squad list, he would not actually be confirmed to play until the registration processes have been completed.
Strategic Moves to Resolve Financial Issues
Barcelona is trying to stitch together a series of player departures in an attempt to register Olmo. The theory being employed here by the club is to sell off some players to manage the financial crises and meet LaLiga's regulations. One big sale already finalized for them is Ilkay Gündogan's transfer to Manchester City, which will balance out things a bit at Barcelona and maybe even take some toll off their backs.
In addition, Clément Lenglet, Mikayil Faye, and Vitor Roque are close to exiting the club. An extended deal until 2027 will spread the remaining salary over a shorter period before he joins Atlético Madrid on loan for a season. This deal alleviates Barcelona's wage bill problems but does provide the temporary answer to their registration headache.
The news claims that Faye is going to move to Rennes for an initial transfer fee of €14 million, with the deal inclusive of a number of add-ons and clauses, but interestingly, it will include options for a future re-signing by Barcelona—in fact, it shows a very intelligent way that the club currently deals with transfers.
Another key news is Roque's imminent loan move to Real Betis. The €35 million January transfer from Club Athletico Paranaense, Roque struggled to find a place in the first team at Barcelona. With a loan deal to Real Betis, he gets valuable playing time and experience, which certainly eases the burden on Barcelona in terms of their financial situation.
New Faces and Injury Concerns
Besides the never-ending registration saga, there are not too many surprises in Barcelona's squad to face Athletic Club. Fermín López, the midfielder, is back in the squad for the first time this season. He spent some time away after great stints with Spain at the European Championships and the Olympic Games. His inclusion adds depth to the midfield options at Barça and will provide additional tactical flexibility to coach Hansi Flick.
However, the team is still dealing with other injuries, particularly with Andreas Christensen, who will not be available for the squad since he has an Achilles problem and may last for many weeks. Flick responded to the issue of Christensen's absence by stating, "I think that he cannot help the team and he also knows that. In the past season he created many matches only 60 minutes because of problems. Now we care for this."
Also missing for Barcelona will be a number of long-term absentees, including Ronald Araújo, Gavi, Frenkie de Jong, and Ansu Fati. Their loss is going to prove very testing on the team, as players of that nature are pivotal to the performances of the club in both domestic and European competition.
Looking Ahead
The case of Dani Olmo's registration, therefore, stands in these hectic times of Barcelona as symptomatic of financial problems and broader operational issues. The handling of player departures and management of financial constraint shows the enterprising spirit of the club to resolve issues in the short term.
For fans and onlookers, the major questions will be how much time it takes for Barcelona to finalize Olmo's registration, if he can feature against Athletic Club, and how these ongoing financial adjustments will come to bear on team performance throughout the season. There is therefore great scrutiny on how Barcelona balances its books while retaining some level of competitiveness with upcoming vital fixtures and a squad facing numerous challenges.
Basically, what Barcelona did with regard to Dani Olmo's case, fielding him against Athletic Club despite registration delays, is very telling of the determination of the club to keep fighting back at these financial difficulties by strengthening themselves. The coming weeks would set a vital tone in terms of how well they can integrate new signings while integrated with financial constraints at the topmost level.
