Laporta senses conspiracy
Does Dani Olmo only play because FC Barcelona cheated?
Does Dani Olmo only play because FC Barcelona cheated?
03.04.2025, 9:37 a.m.
Dani Olmo plays at FC Barcelona with reservations: After moving from RB Leipzig, financial problems of the club initially prevent his commitment. There are great commitments – according to the La Liga, but are not observed. The allegations weigh heavily.
Super coach Hansi Flick cannot use offensive player Dani Olmo at FC Barcelona. Because this is injured. Adductors, “around three weeks” downtime, announced the club last week. But it is quite possible that the former Leipzig professional has to watch even longer. Because the discussions about his registration go into the next round.
The league publishes allegations: The club does not adhere to financial commitments. Without this, the game permit for Olmo and also that for Pau Victor in January would not have been issued. Barça had proposed a deal: the club generated three-digit million profits with the allocation of VIP places in the long run. A sufficiently large surplus can be created to move the salary limit of the squad on this basis. In this case, the two summer newcomers should also fit below the border.
Now there is no longer any question of additional revenue through VIP places at the club. Ultimately, the VIP lodge deal is not “listed in the profit and loss calculations,” said La Liga. This emerges from the intermediate graduation for the first half of the 2024/25 season. The financially extremely battered club had to submit this. Conversely, it means: FC Barcelona does not have the necessary income to register Olmo and Pau. The club thus violates the rules of the Financial FairPlay. The registration of the two players is therefore “invalid”. The league will submit a complaint to the competent authority (ICAC), according to the message.
Olmos forced exit would be immensely expensive
Olmo switched from RB Leipzig to FC Barcelona last summer for 55 million euros. The Spanish international has played 28 games since then. Pau comes from his own youth academy and moved into the professional squad this season. Both currently play with reservations after the Supreme Sports Court of Spain (CSD) had given a preliminary game authorization in January after a long back and forth. Previously, the league and association had refused to register the two professionals because of the financial problems.
The association will not give an official explanation at first, but will wait for the decision of the sports court, reports the “Marca”. This should take place in the coming days. Possible consequences can be a ban on operations for the two offensive players. Or even a point deduction through the cancellation of the games in which Olmo and Pau were used. According to reports, this should be unlikely. FC Barcelona is currently three points ahead of the table, followed by Rival Real Madrid. A deduction of points would have a significant impact on the decision to make the Spanish championship.
“Feeling that this is no coincidence”
If the game permit for Olmo is finally denied, Barça threatens to take a transfer from Olmo. According to estimates, this would burden the club with more than 260 million euros. During his change, he had signed a contract by 2030 with a salary of more than 50 million euros. In the event of a departure, he is still entitled to the entire salary.
Barça President Joan Laporta was angry with the allegations: “La Liga approved Pau Victor and Dani Olmo’s commitment – now you have changed your opinion. Why? Did you do bad work from the start when you approved the contracts?” Since the statements of the league were made against Atlético Madrid on Wednesday evening (1-0) shortly before the semi-final game, Laporta said: “I have the feeling that this is no accident. It is another attempt to destabilize our team, and sometimes I have the feeling that they cannot win in the office on the field.”
