will not be able, for the moment, to register new footballers. FIFA has included the Bilbao club in the list of entities that are prohibited from registering players, a measure that, if applicable, affects the next three market windows and that, if not resolved, would last until January 2028. and they assure that this is a specific issue that will be resolved shortly.
The highest body in world football does not detail the specific reason for the sanction, beyond framing it within the usual “financial disputes or regulatory breaches.” The origin of the problem, as this newspaper has been able to confirm, lies in “disagreements with another club over the rights of a footballer”, specifically goalkeeper Padilla, an administrative difference that they hope to close in the next few hours. Once corrected, the usual thing is for the affected entity to immediately leave the so-called ‘blacklist’.
The operation that has unleashed the potential sanction from FIFA is related to the transfer and subsequent recovery of Álex Padilla. The goalkeeper was loaned in the winter of 2025 to Pumas of Mexico, an operation for which the Bilbao club earned 400,000 euros. However, the departure in the summer of Julen Agirrezabala for Valencia forced Ibaigane to buy back the goalkeeper early, paying 300,000 euros as compensation to the Mexican club, which was in the middle of the competition.
It would not be the first time that something similar has happened in Spanish football. Mallorca and Rayo Vallecano went through a similar situation in January 2025, when they were sanctioned for small outstanding amounts with foreign clubs within the so-called ‘solidarity mechanism’. Days later, after paying 50,000 euros in the case of the Balearic team and 100,000 in the case of the Madrid team, both disappeared from the FIFA list.
Athletic was already in the spotlight for a recent operation: the transfer of Aymeric Laporte from Saudi football. The necessary documentation to formalize his incorporation arrived after the deadline during the last summer market, although after the corresponding appeal the operation was validated considering that the delay was due to issues attributable to Al-Nassr, his previous club.
But what has unleashed the potential sanction from FIFA is the transfer. In short, it is a regulated procedure that FIFA activates automatically when it detects an open conflict between clubs, whether due to outstanding amounts, training rights or administrative discrepancies in a transfer. It is not a disciplinary sanction in the strict sense, but rather a precautionary measure that blocks the registration of players until the incident is completely regularized. In that sense, the responsibility of whether or not to appear on that list falls exclusively on the affected club itself, which must prove it to the international organization that has resolved the controversy.
For Athletic, furthermore, the situation is especially striking, since throughout its history it had never been included in a relationship of this type, something that clashes with the image of a rigorous and compliant entity that it has always defended. Hence, in Ibaigane they insist that the discrepancy will be resolved shortly and that his name will disappear as soon as possible from a list in which, due to history and institutional culture, it should not be.
