Frustrating times for young defender Marlon Santos. Due to a bureaucratic error on Barcelona’s part, as well as very particular rules from the Spanish football federation, Marlon will not be able to play La Liga or Copa del Rey until January.

Strangely, Marlon remains eligible for the Champions League, where, indeed, he has already debuted.

The Brazilian was set to make his Copa debut, but at the last minute, the federation warned the team of the problem. Marlon will not play to avoid another “Denis Cheryshev” case. (Real Madrid were eliminated from the competition when Cheryshev played despite having been banned.)

Marlon was also quite close to making his Liga debut. Gerard Piqué got hurt during the match, and Marlon went out to warm up. Piqué was able to continue, but had he been substituted, it is possible that the match against Real Sociedad would have gone down as a forfeit rather than a draw.

The details of the registration problem are boring, but, essentially, they relate to a filing deadline not met when it comes to B team players being eligible to play for the senior team in national competitions.