It’s a subject that FC Barcelona supporters – and La Liga fans in general – are beginning to know inside out. For a good number of years now, under the leadership of Javier Tebas, the Spanish championship has established financial control, a sort of very strict DNCG, which aims to regulate club finances. The aim is to prevent Iberian stables from living beyond their means and spending more than they can afford. And thus avoid extreme situations that we had at the beginning of the 2000s with clubs which came close to disappearing or even which were relegated to the depths for others.
We therefore have, as our main measure, a control of the club payroll. Which means that even if they have cash available, Iberian teams sometimes have to do some serious balancing acts to be able to register players. This is also the problem that Barça had. More than a question of money available, it was a very low salary cap which prevented the club from acting. Obviously, clubs that are fairly well managed have a little more room to maneuver to build their squad than others. We have clearly seen that FC Barcelona had to resort to sometimes absurd methods, also forcing the recruited players to make enormous sacrifices in terms of salaries, to strengthen themselves. This Thursday, La Liga revealed the authorized salary cap for each club.
Critical situation for Barça
As a reminder, this top salary is established according to the income and solvency of each club. Real Madrid, for example, is doing very well. In total, the Madrilenians can spend up to 727 million euros annually to build their squad. This is around 45 million euros more than last season, a sign that the Merengues have seen their already very good financial health improve a little further. The Spanish press specifies, without giving figures, that Real Madrid’s payroll is still far from these 727 million euros authorized and that consequently, the Madrilenians could even enlist a few additional stars without worries.
On the other hand, Barça is in trouble. FC Barcelona had 648 million euros in salary cap until now, and it has been drastically reduced to 270 million euros. For example, this is less than what La Liga allows Atlético (€296 million for the Colchoneros)! Almost 400 million euros less than last season for the Catalans therefore, who, despite enormous efforts throughout the summer, still remain above this amount of 270 million euros. The current payroll of the team trained by Xavi is effectively 404 million euros according to Mundo Deportivo. A critical situation which will normally prevent Barcelona from recruiting in January, and which risks making it difficult to register future contracts. The Spanish champion club remains subject to the 1/2 rule, that is to say that it will only be able to spend 50% of the income it receives from player sales to recruit, while Laporta’s objective was to go 1/1 (100% of usable income). The Blaugranas still have work to do…
