The Camp Nou side saved €200 million in salaries throughout the summer, giving them some breathing room amid their financial crisis.
Barcelona are still spending around €420m on the senior team’s salaries
Barcelona are still in severe financial trouble despite lowering their wage budget with the departures of Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann, among others. The Camp Nou side saved €200 million in salaries throughout the summer, giving them some breathing room amid their financial crisis. But the club continue to drown in debt, and their unsustainable situation will force them into further cuts next year. Barca have a salary limit of €98m imposed on them by La Liga this season, a significant drop from the €382m limit of last year. But the club is still spending around €420m on the senior team’s salaries, more than €320m over their maximum. The club will escape any sanctions from the Spanish football authorities as long as they work to fix the problem.
Roberto and Dembele’s contracts will expire at the end of the season
But the Catalan team will not be able to increase their spending any time soon. Barca will have to keep cutting until they can balance the books. Just as Barca saw Messi leave and subsequently join Paris Saint-Germain and let Antoine Griezmann return to Atletico Madrid during the summer transfer window, they have little hope of keeping the current squad together next year. They are already trying to convince Sergi Roberto, Ousmane Dembele and Samuel Umtiti, among others, to accept a pay cut in the coming months, but they may even have to let some of those players leave shortly. Roberto and Dembele, for example, have not agreed to a new deal as of yet, and their contracts will expire at the end of the season.
Despite the club’s assertion that they will try to bring in a new face or two in the January transfer window, they will not be able to sign any players on lucrative deals. They do have some leeway because the La Liga rules allow them to spend an extra 25 per cent of the team’s current cost, meaning Barca will have around €25m to play with. But the club’s decision on Ronald Koeman’s future will also affect how much they can spend, given it will cost around €13m to sack the coach this season.