Man Utd and Arsenal learn Olmo fate as Barcelona activate FINAL lever
After much drama it seems like Barcelona will be able to register Dani Olmo with La Liga for good.
Barcelona are closing in on the sale of a portion of the Camp Nou’s VIP boxes for €100m, and this will generate the necessary income to register Dani Olmo (and Pau Victor).
Confirmed by Roger Torello, this “lever” has been in the works for a while and Barcelona hope it will also return them to the mythic 1:1 status.
“1:1” is shorthand for being on solid ground with Financial Fair Play rules. Basically, when a club is in a healthy financial status and can spend 1 Euro for every 1 Euro they make.
Romano confirms Barcelona to sell De Jong despite ‘total nonsense’ claim
Barcelona are currently in a more restrictive state where in order to spend 1 Euro they must first make 3 or 4 Euros.
That doesn’t sound too bad but expend it out and you’ll see that spending say €10 million to register Dani Olmo’s wages means raising €40 million, with the gap increasing exponentially (spending €20 million may require you to raise €100 million).
La Liga puts clubs in this state when they have considerable debts and it is a Financial Fair Play rule designed to stop said clubs from spending beyond their means and going out of business.
No Luck for Man Utd and Arsenal
Barcelona signed Dani Olmo in the summer for €55m but due to the club’s financial situation they did not have the salary “cap space” to register him with La Liga.
They let Ilkay Gundogan leave the club for free and used 80% of the injured Andreas Christensen’s salary worth to get him registered eventually.
But with Christensen soon to return to fitness, the loophole that saw Barcelona use his salary to create enough cap space to register Dani Olmo (and Pau Victor) is now closed.
Out of contract in 2025: The best free agents available on a Bosman
This raised the possibility of Dani Olmo leaving the club for free in January (or at least on loan as he’d only be able to play in the Copa del Rey and Champions League) and this got the attention of Premier League sides.
Man Utd and Arsenal were chief among those interested, but Man City and their desperate need for a creative spark in midfield also seemed to enter high alert.
But while all of those would love to have bagged Dani Olmo on a free, they are all now set to be frustrated as the Blaugrana finally register their man.