Barcelona’s salary cap has been significantly reduced because of its financial struggles, the Spanish league said on Wednesday. And most importantly it is more than seven times smaller than that of rival Real Madrid.
The league said Barcelona’s spending limit on salaries for the 2021-22 season has been set at 97 million euros ($113 million), about 285 million euros ($334 million) less than a year ago. The reduction was part of the reason Barcelona failed to give Lionel Messi a new contract and led to him joining Paris Saint-Germain.
Barcelona has faced a lot of financial problems in the recent times
At the start of the 2019-20 season, the highest revenue club in world football was assigned a budget of 1.47 billion euros by La Liga. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it reduced to 733 million for the last season. La Liga introduced financial control measures in 2013 that says, the maximum amount of money each club can spend on its playing squad and coaching staff each season, conditioned by its income.
The Spanish league says Barcelona’s spending limit on salaries for the 2021-22 season has been set at 97 million euros. That is about 285 million euros less than a year ago. The reduction was part of the reason the Catalan club failed to give Lionel Messi a new contract. And most importantly allowed him to join Paris Saint-Germain.
Six other clubs now have bigger spending limits than Barcelona’s
According to reports, Barcelona’s struggles had already forced the league to reduce the club’s cap. Previously the league’s cap was high 670 million euros in 2019-20, now reduced to 385 million euros last season. Madrid’s cap is the highest, going from 470 million euros ($550 million) to 739 million euros ($863 million), which is 642 million euros ($750 million) more than Catalian club.
Sevilla has a cap of 200 million euros ($233 million), up from 185 million euros ($215 million) a season ago. Atletico Madrid was third in the list after having its limit reduced to 171 million euros ($199 million). The league’s total cap for top-tier clubs was at 2.27 billion euros ($2.64 billion). Eventually, it is 2% lower than it was last season. The league said Spanish clubs spent 271 million euros ($316 million) in the latest transfer window.