La Liga will return Gavi’s status to that of a Barcelona academy player in the latest chapter of a long-running legal dispute over the registration of the new contract he agreed in September.

Gavi will still be able to play as normal for Barca, but it is a significant development that means a release clause allowing him to leave for nothing this summer now comes back into effect. Barca have told The Athletic they intend to take further legal action on the matter.

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His shirt number will change from the six he currently wears, to his old number 30.

Gavi’s situation is a complex one — and it gets to the very heart of the incredibly tense relationship between Barcelona and La Liga.

When the 18-year-old signed a contract extension in September until 2026, he was still registered as an academy player.

The new deal included a clause that would allow him to leave as a free agent if Barca had not registered him as a first-team player by June 30, 2023. Barca could only change his status to that of a first-team player during a transfer window.

By late January, they had not managed to do so, with La Liga stating it could not be done as Barca were in breach of their salary limit rules.Just before the end of the January transfer window, Barca decided to seek a legal ruling, acting without La Liga’s knowledge, to try and force the competition body to register him as a first-team player.

According to court documents, when presenting their case, Barca claimed La Liga’s decision to reject Gavi’s was part of “a harassment campaign” against the club. Barca were successful in their legal bid.

On the very last day of the window, January 31, a Barcelona court ordered a temporary injunction that forced La Liga to register Gavi as a Barca first-team player, while also giving the club 20 working days to file a separate case, through which a permanent resolution over the player’s status would be reached.

Barcelona filed documents in support of this new case on March 2. La Liga then challenged their submission, claiming they had missed the deadline to do so by a day.

Last week, in a document addressed to both parties and seen by The Athletic, the court confirmed in La Liga’s favour, stating Barcelona did indeed file their documents after the deadline.

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The court gave Barca five days to respond before making a final resolution on whether Gavi’s registration will revert to its previous status — that of an academy player.

On Tuesday, La Liga told The Athletic that the court had made a final ruling: to lift the temporary injunction that had forced it to recognise Gavi’s first-team registration. La Liga said it would change his registration “over the coming days”.

Barcelona, meanwhile, continue to claim they filed the necessary paperwork on time, and told The Athletic they intend to further appeal.

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(Photo: Pedro Salado/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)