BarcelonaAware that the salary cap is gibberish, the League organized a training course a few months ago to explain financial control in detail. During one of the breaks, Javier Gómez, the executive in charge of delimiting when a team has room to sign, explained: “You would be surprised by the general lack of knowledge that exists. Even many clubs do not know the rule. And then what happens happens.” The fair play financier, which had historically gone unnoticed and which became popular due to the crisis arising from the pandemic, continues to haunt many clubs, one of which is Barça.
Laporta promised signings
The president has subsequently rectified and admitted that it is not possible
In an interview with Barça TV, Barcelona president Joan Laporta said a month ago that there would be signings in the winter market. But, a few weeks later, he moderated the message. The reason? That the club once again has a negative salary cap. The hasty sale of Antoine Griezmann and elimination from the Champions League have disrupted the organization’s budget and, automatically, the League has reduced its ability to take on debt. As the ARA has been able to confirm, Barça is once again exceeded by a figure of around 30 million. “We are trying to convince the League to be more flexible and allow us another type of interpretations that could make us strengthen ourselves even more”, assures the Barcelona executive president in statements to Efe that he also made on Tuesday on RAC1.
Thebes imposes the strictest control in Europe
The League limits a priori and a posteriori
If it is said that the Spanish league has the strictest financial control, it is because there are actually two. One a priori and another a posteriori. Most competitions only have what is done at the end of the season, and that is to see if the budget has been met and if the numbers match. But the League, to prevent the clubs from stretching their arm more than their sleeve, included a second control, preventive, which is calculated according to the budget. This is a document that lists the guaranteed income (television rights, members and subscribers, sponsorships already signed…) and those that are hypothetical (ticket sales, new sponsors, prizes for winning competitions…) . This is where the “interpretation” Laporta complains about comes into play. Because the League, to prevent the teams from inflating the hypothetical income, calculates the cap according to the money it has achieved, for the same concepts, in previous seasons.
The levers are insufficient
It is not enough to have benefits to be able to sign
It’s only logical that fans are upset. Barça has sold assets levers – worth 867 million and this year will present a record budget with 1,255 million in revenue and 274 in profit. But, despite everything, the League says it cannot sign anyone. And the fact is that the salary limit is not only counted with the turnover of the current year: the losses of previous years are also penalized. In the summer, with the transfer market closed, Barça finished with the counter at zero: they spent just what they could spend. And it even took an endorsement from Laporta and Olivé to register Jules Kounde. From there, everything depended on whether or not the budgets were met during the season.
Griezmann and the fall in the Champions League
The sale of the French and the elimination have led to the negative 30 million
This is where the sale of Griezmann and the premature elimination in the Champions come into play. In the case of the French attacker, Barça agreed to part with him in October. Of course, for half of what was agreed with Atlético de Madrid. He entered 20 million, when in reality there were 40 left to amortize. This operation had a long-term advantage, that Barça was guaranteed to release his card for next season. In addition, and taking into account that the club was guaranteed to close the year with profits, the operation was innocuous accounting. However, in the short term, it meant a loss of 20 million, which the League has subtracted from the salary cap.
Elimination in the Champions League meant that they stopped paying 21 million, compared to what was budgeted – to reach the quarter-finals -, although they also avoided paying 9 million in premiums. Therefore, 12 million that were subtracted, again, from fair play. On the other hand, it is true that Barça has dismissed Gerard Piqué. However, as the ARA explained, his exit only allows the club to free up 5 million in salary. The result is negative 27 million. Approximately the same as the club would have to raise to be able to make any signings in the winter.
Pessimism at Camp Nou
The dressing room and the board admit that signing will be “complicated”
Initially, once the summer market was closed, Barça did not plan to do any operations in January. But injuries, European elimination and defeat against the big names (Real Madrid, Bayern and Inter) made the sports area change its mind. However, and once it has been evidenced that the League remains inflexible in the regulations of the fair play, from the dressing room and from the board itself it is admitted that it will be “complicated” to sign highs. And it is that, even if a transfer with a purchase option were to arrive, since the salary limit is negative there would be no space to be able to register it.
However, this narrowness will be radically different next season. The sale of Griezmann, who has been penalized this season, guarantees to free up salary surplus in the 2023/24 season. Piqué will not be there either and Busquets has one foot in the MLS. Despite everything, a new obstacle appears here: exile in Montjuïc. Going to Lluís Companys will mean paying a lot less money in season tickets ticketing. However, the latter was already planned, and the club will most likely make up for it with a new one leverthe BLM band.
