Javier Tebas has weighed in on Barcelona’s pursuit of Nico Williams after Athletic Bilbao met with LaLiga to discuss the Spanish champions’ finances.
Athletic winger Williams is reported to have a €58million release clause and is said to want to leave the club to join Barca.
But, with Barca still operating under tight financial regulations, Athletic met with LaLiga on Thursday to discuss the Catalan club’s ability to register players.
Barca have previously had issues registering players, most notably Dani Olmo, but on Friday their president Joan Laporta insisted they were prepared to meet Williams’ release clause.
Now Tebas has had his say on the saga, with the LaLiga president telling EFE Deportes: “Athletic Club are complaining because Barcelona have publicly stated, if the statements attributed to Deco are true, that they want to sign a player.
“According to FIFA regulations, he is in a protected period, and we don’t have the authority to interfere in that. What we will do, as we have always done, is that Barcelona will have to comply with the regulations to sign players, be it Nico Williams, [Erling] Haaland, [Lionel] Messi… whoever it may be. And we won’t change anything.”
Tebas went on to reference Laporta’s previous assertions that Barca are not in compliance with the 1:1 rule, which requires clubs to match the money spent on new signings with revenue or wage savings.
“I’m not saying it, the president of FC Barcelona said it, they are not in the 1:1 rule,” Tebas added.
“I hope they will be as soon as possible, as I wish all clubs to be. But as I always say, Barcelona knows what it has to do to be in the 1:1 rule because the regulations are already well known.
“And Athletic Club also knows what Barcelona has to do, because in February we were very transparent so that no one would doubt Financial Fair Play.”
