La Liga have confirmed that Barcelona’s spending cap has increased to €656.5m following a large scale sale of assets over the summer.
Barca’s previous spending cap had been -€144m in January of this year due to a number of disastrous financial decisions – decisions which ultimately led to Lionel Messi leaving the club for Paris Saint-Germain last summer.
Now however, due to the club selling off 49% of Barca Studios and 25% of their television rights for the next 25 years Barca have found more positive financial footing.
La Liga president Javier Tebas confirmed the news on Friday, stating: “Barcelona’s limit is [up to] €656m and they needed this amount, that’s why they were registering players at the last minute.
“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 €400m. But they know all about this, it will be difficult for them to maintain [the new limit] next season.”
Barca splashed the cash on a number of players, including Robert Lewandowski, in the summer but took their La Liga registration down to the wire due to the need to sell assets. Tebas addressed this, stating that the club’s president had to put up a ‘personal guarantee’ in order to register new centre-back Jules Kounde:
“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.”
