This is because, besides the club’s historic debts, the squad’s ongoing salary bill remains way out of control. Barcelona’s total wage bill in 2020-21 (with Messi, Antoine Griezmann et cetera) was €617 million. Their budget for wages last season was €470 million, but in the end, the total came out as €90 million more than that — €560 million.
Romeu said last week that, ideally, the figure for next season should be €400 million — similar to that of 2021-22 La Liga and Champions League winners
Real Madrid. La Liga’s next calculations, based on figures Barcelona say they will submit by the end of July, may mandate even bigger cuts.
The easiest way to lower your wage bill, and what happens at most clubs, is to sell a player, or multiple players. And Barcelona currently have a full XI of first-team squad members who Xavi is not counting on for next season. The problem is that Samuel Umtiti, Martin Braithwaite, Miralem Pjanic, Neto Maura, Clement Lenglet and company do not have much of a market, and are generally happy with their current lives, and hefty wages, in Catalonia.
Barcelona have made
some progress this month, selling youth-team forward Ferran Jutgla to Belgium’s Club Bruges for €5 million. They could raise similar sums for squad players Oscar Mingueza and Riqui Puig, but this would not add significantly to the coffers, or make much difference to the wage bill.
A complicating factor is that, under La Liga’s rules, clubs who have broken their salary limits in previous seasons must devote the majority of any money raised to paying off existing liabilities.
La Liga president Javier Tebas reminded everyone this week of his organisation’s rule of one-to-three for teams in this situation — “If Barca sell players for €100 million, they can spend €33 million on new players,” Tebas said.