Javier Gómez, Corporate General Manager of LaLiga, clarifies the rule by which Barcelona were able to register his signing instead of Christensen
Javier Gómez , Corporate General Manager of LaLiga and ‘father’ of the economic control of the employers’ association, appeared before the media at the close of the transfer market. Gómez spoke about the registration of Dani Olmo and other issues such as whether the Financial Fair Play should be modified. On this subject he was blunt: he considers that it is a rule that maintains the sustainability of the championship and that should not be touched.
Dani Olmo-Christensen case: “I’ll go into more detail on the answer. There are a number of situations: when a player is injured, when a club dismisses a coaching staff, when a player is exploited, especially a young player, and needs to retain him… these are red lines from the outset and the clubs wanted to be able to deal with these situations in order to resolve them independently of their situation with Fair Play. That has to be resolved, Fair Play has to let me resolve these situations. And they are all regulated.
The issue of injury, the assumption is that if a player is injured, the club has to be able to replace him. What happens? Until three years ago, when there was a long-term injury, the injured player could be deregistered. Why? Because when he was released again, he could be registered at any time during the season without being within the summer or winter periods. If a boy was injured in July and recovered in November, he was deregistered and then re-registered in November. His ability to work was not affected.
The rule changes, this situation becomes impossible and then we have to adapt to this right that clubs have. If a player gets injured, I want to be able to replace him at the same time as not deregistering a kid so that he can recover and recover in October and have to wait until January to be able to play again. Another system had to be found to deal with injuries. What system has been found? If a player gets injured, you can bring in another for 80% of the cost, you know it perfectly, and the only thing that has been added is: if you don’t have Fair Play, you are being loaned . Because a player has been injured and you can bring in another.
If you don’t manage to rebalance this throughout the season, on July 1st of the following season you will be removed from the ability to register and sign players for the following season . But it is the same treatment as when a player is fired and the same treatment as when a kid exploits a club, wants to renew him, doesn’t have Fair Play and is loaned Fair Play.
Answering your question, as a result of this treatment that is already being applied to all clubs, the 23/24 season was applied to 8 clubs and 12 players, exactly the same, could it be the case that tomorrow Christensen recovers and is playing with Barcelona? From the federation point of view yes, and Araujo too.. And all those who have been injured may also be the case.
If you look at the statistics, all those who have been injured in the 2023/24 season, you can see who was injured and returned to play before four months. Well, maybe some have played after three months and three weeks. But all the clubs have accepted that this is the treatment, because what cannot be is to treat some in one way and others in another. Or when it happens to me in one way and when it happens to another, in another.
The important thing is to treat everyone equally. The rule can be good, bad, average, you can have whatever opinion you want about it, the important thing is that this treatment is equal for all clubs.”
So Dani Olmo is registered for the entire season? “No, Dani Olmo is registered until December 31st. If Barcelona cannot generate registration capacity, he will not be registered on January 1st.”
Barça 1/1 rule: “The data shows that Barcelona is doing a job clearly aimed at recovering the 1/1 rule. When the accounts are published and are official, we will be able to see it.”
Have there been any complaints against Barça?
“Normally all the clubs demand a tough approach with the others. It’s normal, a tough approach is demanded with the others. Here we have the obligation to apply the rule equally. When one plays a match, one complains about the other side and the other side, about the other side. The referee has to try to be impartial and that’s what we try to do. There is no tendency for the clubs to want to harm Barcelona. It’s true that when one or the other makes transactions, some complain about what one does, others about what others do and that’s what the Division Boards are for, where after the closing everything is put in common and each club has the opportunity to give their opinion or ask about any circumstance that has occurred in the market. And it is explained.”
Which clubs have asked for a tough approach against Barça?
“Nobody has asked for strictness with Barça or Valencia or… There is no request to be strict with any club in particular, there is not.”
Should we change the way we play?
“I don’t think so. Fair Play is nothing strange, it’s not an atomic bomb. It’s a series of rules that the clubs have approved and that the majority accept in order to compete equally and try to maintain sustainability. I’ll go back to 2012, when there were 23 clubs in bankruptcy, the Tax Agency was owed 700 million euros outside the voluntary period, and there were 90 million euros of unpaid debts to players. At that time, it was said that measures had to be taken to be sustainable. Now, it is sustainable and it is said ‘hey, shouldn’t we take measures so that clubs can sign players? ‘ We have come out of that situation because the clubs wanted it and that is what is appropriate. The rationale is this, one has to sign what one has to sign, which does not mean that it is less efficient. We are LaLiga, which has been European champion with the majority of the players from here, which has spectacular talent and we continue to have victories.”
Closing the market earlier
“The clubs are the ones who decide that. If each one looks at what interests them in their own area, one is not interested in having economic control, one is interested in having economic control, one is interested in having the market close on a certain date, another on another date. Those who manage each club make decisions based on a global analysis of all the circumstances.”
