Olmo and Victor of Barcelona are free to play now that the Sports Council has extended registration

Four days after Spanish football officials denied their requests, Spain’s National Sports Council (CSD) on Wednesday permitted Barcelona to provisionally register Dani Olmo and Pau Victor, allowing them to play for the La Liga team.

The two players were only permitted to be registered for the first half of the season because Barcelona was unable to reach La Liga’s pay ceiling after signing them during the offseason.

A plea to register them both for the second half of the season was denied by LaLiga and the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) on Saturday.

According to the CSD, its ruling is “provisional until the final resolution of the appeal lodged by the club.”

Barcelona’s appeal was approved by the CSD, which stated that professional athletes “have the right to a sporting career in accordance with their potential with guarantees and certainty.” Two courts had previously denied Barcelona’s demands.

“The CSD considers that the non-adoption of this precautionary measure would cause serious economic and sporting damage to the club and, above all, to the players,” said the CSD.

“This could also harm the interests of the Spanish national team, as well as the rest of the national competitions, including LaLiga.”

Nevertheless, the decision was made following Hansi Flick’s announcement of the Barcelona squad for Wednesday’s Spanish Super Cup semi-final matchup versus Athletic Bilbao, in which neither Olmo nor Victor were included as starters or replacements.

In a statement, LaLiga expressed its disagreement with the CSD’s ruling and stated it was thinking of filing an appeal.

“The content of the resolution will be studied carefully in order to present the appropriate appeals, without prejudice to expressing its absolute disagreement with it,” it said.

Victor and Olmo were only registered for the first half of the season, and their four-month permission ended on December 31. Olmo was bought from RB Leipzig in August on a six-year contract for about 55 million euros ($56.70 million).

After months of long-term injuries kept first-team players out of the squad, the club was able to sign Olmo, who was the joint best scorer at Euro 2024, by allocating a share of salary.

$1 is equivalent to 0.9700 euros.