Barcelona will not be able to register any of their new signings or rewrite Lionel Messi on a new contract unless they find a way to cut £ 170 million from their salary budgets.
La Liga president Javier Tebas has revealed that Barcelona have exceeded their salary cap for the coming season, which has started a mass exodus from the club.
Jean-Clair Todibo, Konrad de la Fuente, Junior Firpo and Francisco Trincao have all been sold or loaned out and Matheus Fernandes has terminated his contract, but that is only the beginning for Barcelona.
The club’s finances are completely shot. They are in debt to almost 1 billion pounds, but what is more important is their salary structure, which has gone out of control so badly that according to Goal no new players can be registered yet.
Sergio Aguero, Memphis Depay, Eric Garcia and Emerson have all joined the club this summer, but as Barcelona are above their salary cap they can not register to play and will remain so unless they can cut a whopping £ 170 million from theirs. annual salary budget.
Aguero can not even be registered yet / Buda Mendes / Getty Images
As Messi’s contract has expired, he also classifies as a “new player”, which means that Barcelona can not afford to get him back and register him if they do not make any drastic changes.
There are hopes that Barcelona will also be able to charge high-income earners such as Samuel Umtiti, Miralem Pjanic and Philippe Coutinho. It would free up around £ 55m from the budget, but since Barcelona’s salary spending is higher than their income, La Liga rules dictate that they can only spend 25% of the money they save on new players’ salaries. Releasing £ 55 million is equivalent to just under £ 14 million on new salaries, which is not close enough.
Because of this, Barcelona are expected to make some tough decisions on a handful of their older players. There have been many rumors that left-back Jordi Alba may be on his way out, and the same applies to midfielder Sergio Busquets, although there are hopes that the latter will agree to lower his salary with a new contract.
According to Mundo Deportivo, there could be at least five departures from Camp Nou before the club can entertain the idea of signing Messi again.
Griezmann can be sold to free up money / Quality Sport Images / Getty Images
On top of Coutinho, Umtiti and Pjanic, Barcelona will probably sell Neto, Martin Braithwaite and Carles Alena, but there has even been talk of downloading some of the club’s best earners such as Sergi Roberto or even Antoine Griezmann.
Roberto has one year left on his contract and has been made available for transfer, although there has been so little interest in him that Barcelona are even considering offering him a new contract.
There is so much work to be done before Barcelona can sign Messi. Former president Josep Maria Bartomeu ran the club without a thought, and the new manager Joan Laporta is working tirelessly to try to put things back together again.
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