Antoine Griezmann has been in the news in Barcelona circles lately, particularly due to the treatment he is receive from Atletico Madrid.
The Frenchman is currently on loan at Atleti until the end of the 2022/23 campaign. The capital club have an obligation to sign the attacker for a fee of €40 million next year, but only if the player features in 50% of the available matches.
However, there is a contract loophole as matches are only counted if Griezmann plays 45 minutes or more in a particular game. Atletico Madrid have been exploiting this loophole to its full extent, as they are yet to offer him more than 30 minutes of action in any of the four league matches so far.
In light of Atletico Madrid’s policy, Barcelona’s legal team has been running studies on whether the Spanish giants are breaking the laws by effectively barring Griezmann from gaining more game-time, purely in their attempts to avoid the transfer fees.
However, according to Mundo Deportivo, Atletico Madrid are in, no way, breaking the law as the player himself had agreed to such an arrangement when Atletico Madrid had initially finalised the deal with FC Barcelona.
Moreover, Atleti are not breaking any laws, as stipulated by the Spanish Workers’ Statute because Griezmann is not in a position to demand game-time to Atleti. According to the Statute, the every worker has the right to demand corresponding activity agreed in the employment contract.
But in this case, Griezmann’s activity translates to his registration in the Atletico Madrid team, along with the Social Security, rumunerations, and contributions the club offers to the player.
Los Rojiblancos are even in a position to not offer Griezmann any game-time throughout the season as the law ony requires the player to continue to train with his teammates and the rest of the group under the usual work dynamics.
Therefore, Barcelona are powerless in their attempts to intervene in this matter and in fact, the Catalans are now facing a precarious situation where they may have to either lower their askign price for Griezmann or call the Frenchman back to Camp Nou.