West Bromwich Albion have the support of the English Football League to take Barcelona to court over money owed for forward Louie Barry.
A report in Express and Star outlines how the Catalan giants are yet to pay the training compensation of £235k which the Baggies are due.
The Black Country club have made several attempts to contact Barcelona directly to pay the fee but no payment has been forthcoming, with Barry subsequently joining Aston Villa in January in an €800k deal.
It is said that West Brom will now submit their report to FIFA with the support of the EFL, while in a separate development they are also seeking the advice of lawyers to evaluate if the Catalan club could legally sell the player as they had never paid his relevant transfer fee.
Born in Birmingham, Barry has dual English and Northern Irish nationality but previously represented Republic of Ireland’s youth teams before switching to England at Under-16 level.
His family are all said to be supporters of Villa while Mark Harrison, a prominent coach of Barry’s development at West Brom, is now at Villa Park.
That fee is outlined by the report to be broken down into €10k for each year between Under-12 and Under-15 level and €90k for his year with the Under-16s.
After ten years at West Brom, the forward had reportedly earned a number of spectacular offers this summer including from Paris Saint-Germain.
Barry is said to have gone as far as completing his medical in the French capital but eventually opted to join the Blaugrana.
Image via Express and Star
