New judicial clash for Barcelona. Unión Adarve, a RFEF Segunda team, has taken the signing of Marcos Alonso to the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber. The Madrid club accuses the Catalans of irregularities in the operation and affirms that he really carried out a player exchange with Chelsea (Aubameyang for Marcos Alonso and 12 million more) and that the defender did not arrive with the freedom letter. For Adarve, it is important how the operation was carried out, since if it is a transfer, they should receive money.
FIFA has established a solidarity system whereby a small percentage of a transfer must go to the footballer’s training clubs since he was twelve years old. Marcos Alonso was trained mainly in the Real Madrid academy, but he also went through Adarve. That is why they have taken the operation to FIFA. The case is handled by Jorge Vaquero, who was a legal advisor to the Spanish Football Federation and FIFA, and now heads the V Sports Legal Firm. They believe that the departure of Aubameyang to Chelsea and the arrival of Marcos from London to the Camp Nou are the same operation and not two different ones. They point out that the transfer of the Gabonese striker for 12 million euros is well below its market value and they only explain what they describe as a “bargain” if Marcos Alonso was really included in the operation.
The Madrid club, which defends this theory, does not understand why they wanted to sell the two separate operations, but they do feel harmed and are going to fight for their training rights. Among his theories are that he wanted to evade the economic control that Barcelona has so strangled, if it was to avoid paying the solidarity mechanism or if they did not have time to formalize the two operations at the close of the market (the Aubameyang one arrived on the horn in the last minutes of September 1, while the Spanish defender was only separated from Chelsea) and that is why they were sold separately. Regardless of the reason, they have already taken action on the matter before FIFA, who, if they verify that it is true, could even sanction or fine Barcelona if there were any irregularities. In addition, the modest Adarve also plans to contact LaLiga. They assure that they have been able to prove several meetings between both parties since May 2022 to negotiate the transfer of Marcos Alonso and which would support their position. Now, the FIFA Chamber must rule on whether or not there have been irregularities in the signing of Marcos Alonso by Barcelona.
Were there irregularities? It is the unknown that they will have to solve, but it will be very difficult to prove it. Sources consulted by AS point out that Barcelona has the chance to win since it would not be “logical” to have hidden the operation. First of all, because if it were a single operation instead of two different ones, even so it would not have affected the Barça income statement with regard to economic control. The second, because of the risk of the operation for the player. Marcos Alonso would have given up a significant part of his salary to join the ranks of Barcelona and sign for just one season (although he would later renew). The only option would be for the club and player to have agreed that the waived salary would be recovered in subsequent renewals, something difficult to prove. Despite the buts, Adarve is convinced that both operations are related and will fight for training rights.