La Liga say Barcelona are not meeting financial fair play rules and have reported to the authorities an auditor the club employed for four days and which played a vital role in them being allowed to use Dani Olmo and Pau Victor in the second half of the 2024-25 season.
According to La Liga the unnamed auditor was appointed by Barcelona on December 31 and provided a certificate to the league which confirmed that the sale of VIP seating to Middle Eastern investors (worth €100million to the club) was properly accounted for as income in the club’s profit and loss statement for the 2024-25 season.
It was this sale which proved crucial in allowing Barcelona to meet financial regulations (albeit belatedly) and be granted permission from the Spanish government in January to play Olmo and Victor for at least three months.
This is while the Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD), the government’s high sports council, reviews La Liga and RFEF’s decision to deregister the two players, which was due to Barcelona’s late filing of financial documents regarding the sale of the VIP seating. The CSD’s ruling is expected to be delivered on or before Monday, April 7.
The latest issue, according to La Liga, is that Barcelona have reported three auditors to La Liga in the space of three months and the other two have not included the sale of the VIP seating in their statements to the league.
Grant Thornton were acting for Barcelona up until December 31 and filed an interim financial statement (IFS) with no mention of the VIP seating, and Crowe have been in place since the unnamed auditor and filed a limited review report to La Liga.
La Liga argues that according to the IFS filed by Grant Thornton that “Barcelona did not, as of December 31, 2024, or January 3, 2025, nor does it currently, have any positive balance or registration capacity, publicly known as ‘Fair Play’, to register the players Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor.”
The league has informed Barcelona that their squad cost limit has been reduced by the amount of the sale of the VIP seating, based on the submitted IFS.
La Liga has also shared this with the CSD and intends to file a formal complaint with Spain’s Institute of Accounting and Auditing against the unnamed auditor employed by Barcelona between December 31 and January 3.
Club president Joan Laporta said in response to the league’s statement: “It’s been three months since I already said that the registrations of Olmo and Pau Victor had been (done) correctly and we followed each and every one of the requirements demanded by the federation and by La Liga. That continues to be the case.”
Since early January, Olmo and Victor have been available for selection and Barcelona are currently on a 19-game unbeaten run and fighting for three trophies.
Hansi Flick’s team are top of La Liga, in the Champions League quarter-finals and play the second leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final on Wednesday night against Atletico Madrid. Olmo has played 12 times in all competitions in that time, while Victor has appeared three times.
nytimes.com
