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Nico Williams has reportedly set a key condition for him to join Barcelona this summer. The Athletic Bilbao star wants the guarantee that the Catalan side can register him as soon as he signs and not be forced to wait around.
As per a report in MARCA, Williams is interested in joining Barcelona this summer and is pushing for the move. The Spaniard has held talks with the Catalan side and his agents have also met with the club's sporting director, Deco.
Barcelona are yet to activate the release clause as they are sorting out their financial issues before paying the fee. Javier Tebas, the president of LaLiga, has warned the Blaugrana that they will not be given any leeway to get Williams and told EFE via GOAL:
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"Athletic Club are complaining because Barca 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 Barca 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."
Nico Williams has a €58 million release clause that can be activated by any club this summer. Arsenal and Bayern Munich remain interested but he wants to join the Catalan side.
Athletic Bilbao complain about Barcelona's move for Nico Williams
Athletic Bilbao have already lodged a complaint with LaLiga after Barcelona's comments on Nico Williams. They believe that the Catalan side are pushing for the move without having the financial backing to fund the deal and said via GOAL:
"The meeting was held in Madrid in response to a request from Athletic Club made within the framework of compliance with financial fair play. Among the topics discussed was FC Barcelona's ability to sign players after FC Barcelona sporting director Deco publicly acknowledged that they will try to sign a player from our first team."
"Deco's statements add to the public statements made by president Joan Laporta himself, admitting that the Blaugrana club 'is working to be within the 1:1 rule' and that, therefore, it is not currently within the parameters of said rule for registering players."
Barcelona wanted to sign Nico Williams last summer too, but the winger opted to stay at Bilbao.
