“LaLiga Reverses Gavi’s Registration After Missed Deadline, Barcelona Deny Claims”

LaLi­ga has announced that a court deci­sion allow­ing Gavi to be reg­is­tered as a first-team play­er at Barcelona has been over­turned due to the Cata­lan club fil­ing their law­suit late. Gavi, aged 18, signed a new con­tract at Camp Nou in Sep­tem­ber 2021 until 2026, but LaLi­ga did not clear the deal because Barcelona exceed­ed their spend­ing lim­it. Barcelona filed a law­suit against the deci­sion, and on Jan­u­ary 31, a court ordered LaLi­ga to accept Gav­i’s reg­is­tra­tion, with his pre­vi­ous terms due to expire in the summer.

How­ev­er, LaLi­ga has now stat­ed that the judge­ment has been reversed because Barcelona missed a dead­line for the fil­ing of the main law­suit, inval­i­dat­ing Gav­i’s new con­tract. Barcelona sources have denied miss­ing any dead­lines and have said that the deci­sion is not final, and Gav­i’s reg­is­tra­tion will not be reversed until it is final.

In the worst-case sce­nario, Gavi could tech­ni­cal­ly become a free agent in the sum­mer if there is no res­o­lu­tion before then, but sources at Barcelona have said they do not expect that to hap­pen. Even if he los­es his first-team reg­is­tra­tion, the Spain inter­na­tion­al will still be able to play for Barcelona this sea­son under his pre­vi­ous enrol­ment as a youth-team player.

Barcelona has work to do to ensure Gav­i’s deal will be reg­is­tered for next sea­son, and they are also yet to inscribe Ronald Arau­jo’s new terms, which were agreed upon in April 2022. LaLi­ga pres­i­dent Javier Tebas has stat­ed that they need to cut almost €200 mil­lion from their annu­al spend­ing ahead of the 2023–24 sea­son, and they will not be able to afford any sign­ings this sum­mer. In con­trast, Barcelona pres­i­dent Joan Lapor­ta has said the club will work hard to strength­en and are tar­get­ing a right-back and a forward.