La Liga president comments on Gavi’s contract registration: “We are going to oppose”

Barcelona managed to register the new first-team contract of midfield sensation on the deadline day of the January transfer window.

The 18-year-old penned a new deal in September last year, but the contract was not registered with La Liga due to the club’s Financial Fair Play issues. Barça decided to take care of the matter in January, but La Liga continued to put impediments in their path.

Ultimately, Barça filed a court case against the league in an attempt to register the player. The court ruling came out in favour of the club, forcing La Liga to file Gavi as part of the Catalans’ senior team, with the midfielder even getting the iconic No. 6 jersey.

However, the matter is far from over as La Liga president Javier Tebas has confirmed that the league will continue to oppose the registration of Gavi and have already lodged an appeal on the matter.

In a recent press conference (h/t MARCA), he said: “He is registered. He’s going to play in the next few months. The problem is the registration. It’s still in the precautionary measure, we’re going to oppose it. We have a few days to do so.

“A decision will be issued. If our opposition is upheld, he would play but he would play with the previous record.”

Further elaborating on what Barcelona need to do to make the registration airtight, Tebas added: “They have to show a series of numbers and cash, and if they do that, the registration would be no problem. The losses must be less than what they have. It doesn’t mean he can’t be registered. Barcelona know what they have to do.”

Tebas opines on the Enriquez Negreira scandal

Tebas also spoke about the recent controversy that Barça find themselves embroiled in. The Blaugrana made a payment of around €1.4 million to a company owned by the former vice-president of the Referees Committee, Enriquez Negreira between 2016 and 2018.

The La Liga president had already confirmed that Barcelona would not be receiving any sporting sanctions due to the statute of limitations on the issue already passing.

Now, he has claimed that as far as he has learnt from his contacts on the committee, there were no irregularities.

“The referees are appointed by a committee, not by the CTA. The referees were never under pressure, as far as I have been told. I have spoken to those who were there at the time and I believe the referees if they say they did not intervene,” Tebas said.

“I want to clarify everything. I say that in sporting discipline, in relation to the Negreira case, the statute of limitations has expired. No sporting body can seek a sanction, because it is time-barred,” he added.

However, he did add that the entire issue needed to be investigated and clarified, saying: “Everything indicates that there are indications, not that there is proof or a crime, but there are indications that should be investigated.

“La Liga cannot be passive in the face of the facts that are happening. There are indications. These are strange and unusual events. The amount, the concepts… This has to be clarified.”

The La Liga president did not rule out the possibility that the Catalans might have been victims of a fraud by Negreira, as he said:

“Barça could be the victim of a fraudster. I’ve seen everything. I’ve seen fixing, attempted fixing, people who were paid by two clubs… We are all grown up, it wouldn’t be surprising in the criminal field. It must be cleared up.”