Luis Enrique originally had his appeal to register Arda Turan as a Barcelona footballer despite their player ban rejected by FIFA. However, some positive news comes in the form of a sports council backing their appeal, which could see the Turkish midfielder play.
According to Spanish newspaper AS, the Spanish Sports Council (CSD) has been quoted by Secretary of State for Sport Miguel Cardenal to stand behind Barca’s bid to add the summer signing to their roster early. This newspaper says that the CSD can register players without the consent of FIFA.
“This is a FIFA punishment which neither the Spanish government nor the CSD have been part of and I don’t know the details,” according to Cardenal by the newspaper.
“But recently we have seen signs with the sale of TV rights that we defend the Spanish legal system and the application of Spanish legislation…In this hypothesis, we would favour the interests of Barcelona and if that is what happened we would not hesitate to give our support.”
Whether or not this is plausible is uncertain. But what this could mean is that Barcelona could address these issues with some of Spain’s governing bodies of football and possibly counter FIFA’s rejection. Enrique has reiterated Turan is ready to play to replace injured Rafinha should he get the “ok” out of the appeal. However, Barcelona might not see their player start as it seems suspicious on their end.
Players such as Lionel Messi, Javier Mascherano and Neymar are going into legal troubles over tax evasion claims among other things. Neymar, especially, has been linked with the Catalan club disputing that his past club Santos paid more than initially reported and haven’t received the appropriate settlement. And Messi has taken legal action over accusations of fraud.
If the appeal goes Barca’s way, it might look worse on their end.
