Barcelona appeal to CAS over collapsed winter deadline day signing

According to journalist Toni Juanmarti, Barcelona have lodged an appeal to the Court of Arbitration of SPORT (CAS) over the failed winter deadline-day signing of Julian Araujo.

The 21-year-old Mexican international had been on Barça’s radar for a long time and the club finally decided to pull the trigger on his signing from LA Galaxy on the January deadline day.

Barcelona reached an agreement with LA Galaxy over a €2 million fee for 50% of the player’s rights and personal terms were also sorted. The youngster was set to be a part of the Barça Atletic side and play for the senior team as and when needed.

However, the required paperwork filing was delayed by a mere 18 seconds, leading to the transfer not going through.

While Barcelona appealed the matter to FIFA, they were met with a rejection, meaning the deal had collapsed.

However, the Catalans have not given up on the matter yet, according to Juanmarti. The club consider Araujo as very much their player now and the right-back sees himself as a Barça player.

Hence, in order to seek resolution they have turned to the CAS to get the transfer authorised, even though they are aware that receiving a greenlight could be difficult.

Barcelona director Mateu Alemany confirmed the same in a press conference earlier today, saying (h/t Toni Juanmarti): “We are counting on him, we are looking for solutions. There is an appeal to CAS and if not, the player will have to play for a different team in the next five months.”

Essentially, Alemany has confirmed that Araujo is pretty much a Barcelona player for all intents and purposes, even though the transfer has not been officially authorised.

And in case the CAS appeal does not yield the desired result, the plan is for the 21-year-old to play at a different club in a league where the transfer window is still open until the summer, when he can be a Barcelona player officially.