Barca busting their wage cap by more than €300m
Robin Bairner
- 2 Oct 2021 14:17 BST
- 3 min read
The scale of Barcelona’s financial issues has been made clear, with the Camp Nou side busting the salary cap given to them by La Liga by more than €300 million.
Barca’s wage limit was announced at being €97m per season earlier this week by La Liga – some seven times less than that Real Madrid have earned.
Indeed, this is only the seventh largest wage bill in La Liga.
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However, Goal reports that while Barcelona have managed to trim more than €200m from their wage costs this season, they are still substantially over the limit presented to the by the Spanish League.
Indeed, it is said that Barcelona’s total annual wage bill for the year is set to come to €420m.
In the short term, this is not actually a massive problem for the Catalans. They will not be punished by La Liga if they continue to work to reduce this tally.
Barcelona have demonstrably been doing so. Players such as Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets have accepted reduced terms, while they are working to cut the wages of Sergi Roberto, although the signs are that they will not be able to do so.
In the long term, these figures remain alarming. Indeed, it means that they will need to continue their cost-cutting measures into the 2022/23 campaign – and possibly well beyond that.
If they are unsuccessful in negotiating with stars such as Ousmane Dembele and Samuel Umtiti to reduce their contracts, they will likely have to work harder to move such players on.
Additionally, these constraints effectively rule out any major signings in the January transfer window at least.
Furthermore, it could impact their decision whether or not to sack head coach Ronald Koeman, which is a move that would cost Barcelona upwards of €10 million.
