Barcelona suffered a heavy blow today, Thursday, after the Spanish Football League decided to reduce the club’s maximum spending ceiling to 270 million euros.
The Spanish League has strict spending controls that prevent clubs from continuing to spend excessively on player wages and transfers.
Expenses covered by the special spending limit in La Liga include player and employee salaries, transfer consumption costs, agent fees, bonuses, and others.
The process of calculating clubs’ spending ceilings is done by subtracting their debts and non-sports expenses from their revenues.
Barcelona’s previous limit was 649 million euros, a number that was inflated due to the sale of future television broadcasting rights income as part of a series of financial “leverages” to which the club resorted.
🚨 Nuevos límites salariales
📉 The bar is 649 millones a 270
💰 The Real Madrid has a limit of 727 million, whoever has it https://t.co/SNPTWdc8Vb
— Mundo Deportivo (@mundodeportivo) September 14, 2023
Barcelona will only be allowed to use approximately 50% of the income to improve the team, until it reduces expenses.
The current situation means that Barcelona are unlikely to make major transfer deals in January, with further cuts needed if the club is to be in a position to strengthen its squad next summer.
This happens despite the departure of Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Frenchman Ousmane Dembélé and many other players.
German goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen signed a new contract with the club in August until 2028, which allowed Barcelona to sign new signings such as the Portuguese transfers on loan, Joao Cancelo and Joao Felix.
Club president Joan Laporta said Thursday, “We have to thank him (Ter Stegen) for restructuring his contract because he allowed other players to score.”
For his part, Spanish League President Javier Tebas confirmed that he does not know when Barcelona’s financial situation will return to normal.
– FC Barcelona (@fcbarcelona_ara) September 5, 2023
He added in a press conference on Thursday, “It depends on Barcelona and its commercial strategy.” Maybe they sell a great player and take a giant step forward. “We don’t know if they will do that.”
He continued, “The entire strategy in the medium and long term is set by the club, and we do not set it for them.”
On the other hand, Real Madrid’s maximum spending amounted to 727 million euros, and Atletico Madrid ranks second behind Los Blancos, with a maximum of 296 million euros.
