Tebas Warns Barcelona About Joan García and Nico Williams

Javier Tebas, the president of LaLiga, issued a warning to Barcelona on Tuesday regarding the registration of goalkeeper Joan Garcia (Espanyol) and their financial capacity to sign Nico Williams (Athletic). He made these remarks during a visit to the new Esade Campus in Madrid, at an event marking the tenth anniversary of the Royal Decree that implemented the centralised distribution of audiovisual rights in Spanish football.

After reiterating his well-known messages on piracy, economic control, his relationship with Florentino Pérez, and his strong criticism of the Club World Cup held in the United States, the head of Spanish professional football took the opportunity to alert the entity led by Juan Laporta. The aim is to prevent a repeat of the Dani Olmo case, which, according to LaLiga, should not have been registered last season, but Barça achieved their goal by appealing to the Higher Sports Council.

Regarding the anticipated announcement of Joan Garcia's signing, following LaLiga's notification of the receipt of the €26.34 million release clause, as did Espanyol, Tebas clarified that "making Joan Garcia's signing official is one thing, and registering him is another. Barça needs to do certain things to register him, not many, but they know what they are, although we are not even in the registration period yet, we'll see..." Tebas referred to the fact that the registration period for the 2025-26 season will not begin until July 1.

Regarding whether Barça has the funds to pay the €62 million (58 plus CPI) clause for Nico Williams, Tebas reminded that the Catalan club is not yet under the 1:1 rule. "I don't know, but in the end, you hear so many: Williams, the other one, the guy with the bike... First, what needs to be registered must be true, which I don't know. But they still do not meet the requirements to sign freely, they cannot yet sign under the 1:1 rule. If they want Nico, they will have to sell and significantly adjust their accounts," he emphasised. On a more positive note for Barcelona, Tebas considered that Lamine Yamal has earned merits to win a Ballon d'Or, which would bring more prestige to the league internationally.

On another note, Tebas celebrated the tenth anniversary of a Royal Decree he considers historic. "From the fourth club in the league to the last, there is a dependency on audiovisual rights. For the fourth, they account for 50% of their income, and this amount rises to 95% for other teams like Rayo," explained the president of the association. He acknowledged that another issue is commercial income, where, in his opinion, "work needs to be done so that small and medium-sized clubs can grow more because audiovisual rights have a limit. Between piracy and more competitions..., we are all fighting for the same pie here."