Barcelona will take legal action as La Liga are set to return Gavi’s status to an academy player, reports The Athletic.
There has been a long-running legal dispute over the registration of the 18-year-olds’ new contract.
A release clause that allows Gavi to leave Barca for free this summer now comes back into effect due to the latest La Liga ruling.
The La Masia graduate will continue to play for them. However, he will revert to his old number 30 jersey after taking up number six upon signing his new deal.
Gavi was still registered as an academy player when he signed the new four-year deal last September.
However, the release clause allows him to leave for free if he had not been registered as a first-team player by June 30.
Barca’s only chance of changing his registration status was during a transfer window.
Unfortunately, La Liga prevented them from doing so in January as they were already in breach of their salary limit rules.
Barca acted without La Liga’s knowledge and sought a legal ruling.
They were successful in their attempt to force La Liga to register Gavi as a first-team player.
However, it happened on transfer deadline day. They were given 20 working days by the court to file a separate case.
The new case would ensure that a permanent resolution over the player’s status would be reached.
However, Barca filed their documents on March 2 – missing the deadline by a day.
It is a mistake that could prove costly as the court has ruled in La Liga’s favour.
The Catalans insist that they did not miss the deadline. The court gave them five days to respond before making a final resolution on Gavi’s registration status.
La Liga have told The Athletic they would change the player’s registration after the latest court ruling.
The case is not ending anytime soon as Barca are ready to go to any lengths to resolve the situation.
