La Liga has reduced Barcelona’s spending cap for the 2023/24 season to €270 million ($290m), according to a statement released by the Spanish top-flight league.
This cap is less by more than half of last season’s, as the Catalan giants were restricted to spending €656 million in September last year, and reduced by a few million Euros to €648 million in February of this year.
The spending cap indicates the amount clubs are permitted to spend during a season on players, coaches, youth teams, and other outgoings.
With their wage bill being in excess of €400 million, Barcelona will now only be able to spend between 50 and 60% of any revenue created or reductions made as per the league’s rules.
For a couple of seasons now, Barcelona have had to pull several economic levers to avoid sinking into the red zone financially despite severe cost-cutting that included letting go of some players and asking others to take pay cuts. Still, Barcelona have one of the highest wage bills in world football.
Some of the economic levers include selling the club’s TV channel and partially selling assets to try and keep debt under control. Even with the cuts, Barcelona only managed to register summer signings Ilkay Gundogan, Inigo Martinez, and Oriol Romeu hours before the new season.
As most clubs saw their caps being reduced, Real Madrid’s is still very much healthy at €727 million, the highest in the league. Atletico Madrid are a distant second at €296 million.
La Liga clubs have a combined salary limit of €489 million less when compared to last season.
