Barcelona President Joan Laporta has some major questions to answer, after Dani Olmo and Pau Victor went unregistered past the La Liga deadline of midnight. Neither player can play again for the rest of the season, save for any surprise twists.

La Liga rules state that players cannot be registered by the same club twice in the same season, and having originally registered both players through an emergency injury ruling in August, had until January to resolve their salary limit issues. Barcelona signed a new sponsorship deal with Nike, but after that was insufficient to register Olmo and Victor, turned to sell some of the commercial rights to their VIP boxes at Camp Nou for €100m for the next 20 years.

There will be no bank guarantee from the members of the board. @sport

— barcacentre (@barcacentre) December 31, 2024

It had been leaked to the media that Barcelona had been sending documents over the last two days, but La Liga released a statement three hours before the deadline explaining that Barcelona had not submitted any new information relevant to their registration. The Blaugrana had previously emitted a statement stating that they had requested a new licence from the Spanish Football Federation, but it remains to be seen whether that will be granted.

Victor is set to head out on loan, while Olmo’s situation is unclear. Agent Andy Bara has stated that his client will remain at Barcelona as he wishes to play for his boyhood club, but he does have a clause in his contract allowing him to leave for free if he wants, with the full sum of his six-year contract in his pocket. No doubt numerous of Europe’s elite will be trying to persuade him to exercise that clause.