Every football player must be registered with the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), in order to participate in official league matches. The registration requires a previous authorisation by LaLiga, which cannot be granted if the player’s salary causes the club’s spending limit to be exceeded.
After the club signed Dani Olmo from RB Leipzig for EUR 55 million in August 2024, it had problems fitting him and Pau Víctor into the spending limit. As Barcelona initially could not register these players, playmaker Dani Olmo missed the first two matchdays. It was only the long-term injury of Christensen and the possibility of replacing his registration with another player that allowed Dani Olmo to be registered. However, just like in the case of Pau Víctor, albeit for different reasons, his registration was limited to 31 December 2024.
At the end of 2024, the club had to renew the registrations beyond the said date. Despite sponsorship contracts and agreements for the sale of VIP passes which promised to bring the necessary revenue to raise the salary cap and register both players, LaLiga announced on 31 December that Barcelona had not submitted the required documentation for this to happen. Consequently, LaLiga refused to authorise the registration of the players, and the club deregistered both players, as their registrations had not been extended. Furthermore, the federal regulations do not allow a player who has been deregistered to be re-registered for the same club in the same season.
At the beginning of January 2025, FC Barcelona therefore found itself in an extremely critical situation, unable to register these players and also facing the latent risk of a possible unilateral termination of the players’ contracts due to the failure to register them.
Since both the RFEF and LaLiga had already made their negative decision and the club had previously applied to two courts for an injunction without success, FC Barcelona’s only hope was a positive decision from the CSD, the regulatory authority in sports matters in Spain. On 5 January 2025, the CSD did indeed grant the club’s request for an interim injunction, allowing both players to participate in official matches until a final decision was issued.