Barcelona are formally notified over Alvarez as the RFEF opens disciplinary proceedings
Atletico lodged their complaint with FIFA and the Spanish federation on 30 June, accusing Barcelona of approaching a player contracted until 2030. Both clubs have now been served notice, and Barcelona are preparing a written defence.
Aug 2, 2026
The Julián Álvarez transfer saga has stopped being a negotiation and turned into a disciplinary file. Atlético Madrid lodged a formal complaint against Barcelona with FIFA and the Spanish federation on 30 June, accusing them of contacting a player under contract at a time the rules do not allow it. Barcelona have now been officially notified by both bodies, the RFEF has opened extraordinary disciplinary proceedings, and the club are preparing a written defence.
This is the point where a transfer row acquires paperwork and deadlines. Both clubs have been served notice, Barcelona will be told how long they have to answer, and only then does anyone examine the substance.
What Atlético say happened
The allegation is tapping up, in the plainest sense. Atlético say Barcelona were in contact with Álvarez himself, or with people around him, during a window in which a club is not permitted to approach another club’s contracted player without written permission. Atlético have gone further in their public framing and described the conduct as harassment, a campaign to persuade the forward to push for an exit rather than see out a deal that runs to 2030.
The contract is the whole of Atlético’s position. Álvarez is 26, tied to the club for four more years, and protected by a release clause reported at around 500 million euros. Their line all summer has been that the clause is the only route, and chief executive Miguel Ángel Gil Marín put it about as bluntly as a chief executive can in mid-July: they do not want to sell, they do not accept the 100 million offer, and they would not accept 150 million or 200 million either. Real Madrid had a 150 million bid turned down earlier in the window. Arsenal have held talks of their own since, and are reported to be the one interested party Atlético would at least sit down with.
What Barcelona will argue
Barcelona’s defence, as briefed in Spain, rests on two points. The first is procedural: the 100 million euro offer went to Atlético Madrid, in writing, not to Álvarez or his representatives, which is exactly what the regulations require. Joan Laporta confirmed the offer publicly on 13 July, saying Barcelona had one on the table because their coach wanted the player and calling it a very good offer by their standards.
The second is that nobody had to talk Álvarez into anything. He said it himself, on the record, during a World Cup, that he wanted to leave. Barcelona’s position is that a player making his own wishes public is not evidence that a rival club put the words in his mouth. Club officials are reported to be confident the case ends without a sanction.
Whether that holds is a question about evidence rather than logic. An unauthorised approach case usually turns on messages, meetings and intermediaries, not on what a player said into a microphone afterwards.
What is actually at risk
Spanish reporting on the possible penalties, if the complaint is upheld, runs from fines through to a ban on registering new players for one or more transfer windows, partial closure of the ground for a number of matches, and a deduction of up to three LaLiga points. Álvarez himself could face a suspension from official matches and an obligation to compensate Atlético for the period.
Those are the outer edges of what the rules permit rather than a forecast, and disciplinary cases of this kind rarely arrive at the maximum. But a registration ban is the one that would genuinely hurt a club still building a squad, and it explains why Barcelona are treating the response as a legal exercise rather than a formality.
10 August is the date to watch
The football calendar may settle this before the lawyers do. Álvarez is due back at Atlético for training on 10 August. If he reports and trains normally, the pressure on Atlético to sell drops away and Barcelona are left arguing a case about a transfer that never happened. If he does not, the dispute gets louder in the week LaLiga begins on 15 August.
The two positions have not moved since June. Barcelona want the striker and have offered a fifth of the clause. Atlético will not sell at any of the numbers named so far. What has changed is that the argument is now on a federation docket, with a deadline attached to it.