Barcelona‘s spending cap for the season has increased by almost €800 million to €656.5m following the sale of club assets this summer, LaLiga confirmed on Friday.
Barca sold 25% of their domestic television rights for the next 25 years and a 49% stake in Barca Studios for over €700m in total after receiving permission from the club’s members to do so.
That allowed them to spend more than €150m on new signings Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde in the transfer window, while Andreas Christensen, Franck Kessie, Hector Bellerin and Marcos Alonso all arrived on free transfers.
It marks a remarkable turnaround from last summer, when the club could not afford to keep Lionel Messi and LaLiga brought their spending limit down to €96m. By January, that cap had been further reduced to -€144m, the only negative limit in the league.
Real Madrid still have the largest spending cap in LaLiga, though. Madrid are allowed to spend up to €683.5m annually on the running of their squad.
“Barcelona’s limit is [up to] €656m and they needed this amount, that’s why they were registering players at the last minute,” LaLiga president Javier Tebas said.
“Without the [sale of assets] it may not be so high next season. They may have to reduce their outgoings by around €200m by selling players or even [selling more] assets.
“I think [Barca’s vice president Eduard] Romeu has said they need it to be at around €400 and something million. But they know all about this, it will be difficult for them to maintain [the new limit] next season.”
When asked if LaLiga had been too generous with Barca, Tebas said: “Not at all, the same rules are applied to all the clubs in Spain. To register Kounde, the president of Barcelona had to put up a personal guarantee.
“Is there a risk of bankruptcy? In my opinion, I don’t think so, not at all, they have a high wage bill but a lot of equity, although as Romeu said, they have had and [will] have to reduce the wage bill.”
Atletico Madrid have the third highest limit, but it is around €300m less than Madrid and Barca’s at €341m. Sevilla (€200m) and Villarreal (€151m) complete the top five, while Elche and newly promoted Girona have the lowest caps at just over €42m.
LaLiga’s spending limit accounts for the maximum amount clubs can spend on wages, bonuses and amortisation payments on transfers across a season, not how much they are necessarily spending.
As Barca have previously been over their limit, they have only been permitted to spend at a ratio of 1:4 — 25% of anything they saved in wages or raised in fees could go on new signings or new contracts — but LaLiga confirmed to ESPN earlier in the summer they are now working at a 1:1 ration once again.
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