Contracts of Frenkie de Jong, Marc-André ter Stegen, Gerard Piqué and Clément Lenglet come under legal scrutiny

Contracts of Frenkie de Jong, Marc-André ter Stegen, Gerard Piqué and Clément Lenglet come under legal scrutiny

| sport

Toni Roca, CEO of the Sports Law Institute, believes it is very difficult for Barça to prove irregularities in the four renewals in court.

FC Barcelona will find it very difficult to prove irregularities before the justice in the renewals of Frenkie de Jong, Marc-André ter Stegen, Gerard Piqué and Clément Lenglet, all made official at the same time last October 2020, according to Sports Law Institute.

Toni Roca, CEO of the firm, does not believe though that the club is extorting its players, especially in the case of Frenkie de Jong whose high salary hinders Barça from registering its new signings. "Barça are playing on the edge, but it's still a negotiation," he stressed.

Furthermore, Roca, who is also the director of the specialist soccer firm Himnus, insists that the club cannot leave players without numbers and warned that failure to register new signings could result in them being released.

"The players have not committed any crime, because they were only asked to help the club at a critical time with a salary reduction that led to the logical demand for some kind of compensation in return, either in the form of more years or in the form of improved wages later on. It is complicated for FC Barcelona to take this case to court, as the process would take years and by the time everything is settled, the players may no longer be part of the club," Roca argued.

As for the case of Frenkie de Jong, Roca believes that Barça continue to act on the edge of legality. "I don't think we are dealing with a crime of extortion, but rather with a simple negotiation over economic issues in which Barça is playing a bit on the edge," he said.

Toni Roca also spoke about the possible consequences of the signings not being registered. "It would be something similar to the club leaving them without a number. Article 16.2 of the famous Royal Decree 1006 of 1985 establishes that the termination of the contract, for this reason, produces the same effects as unfair dismissal without reinstatement. In other words, the player would be free and could request compensation from the club as well," he argued.

Topics with the letter