Barcelona are facing criticism from Athletic Club after Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor were granted temporary playing registrations by the country’s top sports court.
The players had been denied registration by both LaLiga and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) after the Catalan club missed a Dec. 31 deadline to prove it was compliant with the league’s financial fair play rules.
Barça successfully appealed to Spain’s Sports Council (CSD) for Olmo and Victor to be temporarily allowed to play before a definitive ruling is made.
Speaking before his team’s 2-0 defeat to Barcelona in Wednesday’s Spanish Supercopa semifinal in Jeddah, Athletic Club president Jon Uriarte called the decision “grotesque.”
“It is a provisional measure taken by a political body,” Uriarte said.
“Now it is LaLiga and the [Spanish Football] Federation that will have to defend the decision they took.
“Maybe if I draw a conclusion, it is that we are eight days into the new year and we are experiencing something that is incredible.
“We, clubs, are asked to make an effort to grow, to make our competitions bigger on the one hand, and on the other hand to make efforts to come here [to Saudi Arabia], to a country far from our fans, to play these [Supercopa] games but then we experience situations of this type that are grotesque.
“A situation like that cannot happen because it is very bad for football.”
Athletic is the only club in Spain’s top two divisions to have publicly reacted to the CSD’s decision on Olmo and Victor.
Barcelona’s sporting director Deco defended the club in response to Uriarte’s comments.
“Every club has their own issues and their own problems and should focus on themselves,” Deco said.
“We’re doing things well at Barça, trying to do things in the best way possible.
“Everything else is in the hands of the governing bodies or the courts. And if they have given [the players registrations] for the moment, there is a reason for that.”
Athletic forward Iñaki Williams said he thinks Spanish football may be “tarnished” by the ordeal.
“In the same vein as all football fans, I’m surprised. It seems that the rules are not the same for everyone, but we are not the ones who have to decide,” Williams told reporters.
“If those who decide have decided this, there must be a reason. It never ceases to surprise us, the image of Spanish football may be a little tarnished because there is a lot of division because many things are not understood.
“We have to close this chapter for the good of Spanish football.
“I am happy for Dani Olmo and Pau Victor because I think it is a very difficult situation for them and all they want is to play football. As a football professional, I’m happy for both of them.”
LaLiga president Javier Tebas weighed in on the matter, expressing surprise at the CSD decision. He also took the opportunity to ask why there has been a “complicit silence” from Real Madrid TV.
“CSD president [Jose Manuel Rodriguez Uribes] seems to hear a single voice, which does not represent Spanish professional football,” Tebas said on social media.
“And that voice, curiously, maintains a complicit silence in this case. Where is Real Madrid TV now?”
Real Madrid TV has been a critic of some of LaLiga’s actions and especially comments by Tebas.
Olmo, a €60 million ($62m) summer signing from RB Leipzig, and Víctor, who joined in August on a permanent transfer from Girona, will be available to play in Sunday’s Spanish Supercopa final after missing Wednesday’s game.
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