Elche’s complaint against Barcelona over Gavi dismissed by Competition Committee

According to Ramon Fuentes of Mundo Deportivo, the Competition Committee has dismissed the complaint lodged by Elche against Barcelona over ‘improper alignment’ with regard to fielding Gavi in the starting lineup in a La Liga game.

Barcelona beat Elche 4-0 away at Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero earlier this month. Gavi, whose first-team registration had been overturned by that time, was part of the starting XI for the Blaugrana against the relegation battlers.

Following the match, Elche filed a complaint with RFEF over Barcelona’s usage of Gavi, alleging that the Catalans had fielded an ‘ineligible player’.

They were citing Article 141 of the General Regulations of RFEF, which states: ‘Footballers whose license is cancelled, may not, during the same season, obtain a license in the same team of the club to which they were already linked.’

Barcelona were never worried about the complaint as they had cleared the matter with La Liga and RFEF prior to the match itself.

But since the complaint was lodged, the Competition Committee was forced to open a file two weeks ago and they had given Barça time until Tuesday of the last week to respond to the matter.

The Catalans are understood to have done what was needed of them in time and now the Committee has ruled against Elche and dismissed their complaint, stating that there was never any cancellation of Gavi’s licence at any point. Part of the response from the Committee is as follows:

‘At no time, consequently, was the player’s license canceled, and article 141.5 of the federative General Regulations referred to in the legal basis cannot be understood as violated third of this resolution. 

‘The player, in short, met all the conditions required in article 248.1 of this same General Regulations, which lists the general requirements that footballers must meet to be aligned.’

So, as was widely expected, Barcelona were never in the wrong with regard to using Gavi, and Elche’s complaint has thus been dismissed.