La Liga: Spanish Gov’t Grants Olmo, Victor Temporary Permission To Play For Barcelona

Barcelona will be able to play Dani Olmo and Pau Victor in the second half of the 2024-25 La Liga season temporarily.

The Spanish government has suspended the agreement reached on January 4 by the RFEF (Spanish FA) and La Liga, which had cancelled the two players’ sporting licenses after Barcelona missed the December 31 deadline to extend them.

Barcelona’s attempts to re-register the duo were rejected by the RFEF and La Liga, leading the club to submit a 52-page appeal and more than 60 accompanying documents to the Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD), the highest sports council within the Spanish government.

The decision from CSD is an acknowledgement that Barcelona have grounds to dispute the decision taken by La Liga and RFEF, and has been made because the club are at risk of losing two important assets before a definitive ruling is made.

Until then, and it is not known how long that will take, Olmo and Victor will be available for Barcelona, meaning they can feature in La Liga and the early rounds of the Champions League knockout stages.

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Neither have been named in Hansi Flick’s squad for Wednesday evening’s Supercopa de Espana semi-final against Athletic Club, though both players are in Saudi Arabia and could be available if Barcelona reach Sunday’s final, where they would face either Real Madrid or Mallorca.

Explaining their decision, the CSD cited Spain’s Article 27 of the Law on Sport which states that professional athletes have the right “to a sporting career in accordance with their potential.”

The CSD believed that not lifting the de-registrations would “cause serious economic and sporting damage to the club and, above all, to the players”, while also arguing that the de-registrations could “harm the interests” of the Spanish national team and La Liga.

Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s match against Athletic, Barcelona sporting director, Deco, said: “I am happy for the players. We have gone through very difficult days, and the players want to play. But we are so happy with the outcome and that the CSD has proved we were right, which is the important thing.”