Spanish giants FC Barcelona are under massive financial duress right now and they have racked up a debt of around €1.3 billion.
Because of that, La Liga authorities have set new limits on squad spending and they have capped Barcelona’s wage bill at £84.7 million (€97.94m or $114m). Even Premier League minnows like Watford can spend higher right now. Watford spend €111m, according to Bloomberg.
According to a report from the Guardian, bitter rivals Real Madrid are in a far healthier position financially and Los Blancos can spend almost eight times on new players, salaries, coaching staff and their academies.
Club president Florentino Perez has been prudent with his financial management and Real Madrid have a spending limit of around £562 million this season.
Barcelona’s financial crisis has thrown them into utter chaos this season and they had to let go of the likes of Lionel Messi, Emerson Royal and Antoine Griezmann during the summer transfer window in order to bring down their wage bill. The playing squad was heavily weakened as a result of that.
Despite having a contractual agreement with Messi, Barcelona failed to go through with this extension because their spending powers were curbed by the Spanish league authorities.
It is also one of the main reasons why Barcelona failed to bring in top-class players during the summer transfer window and they were more interested in signing free agents from across Europe. They ended up signing players like Luuk de Jong, Memphis Depay and Eric Garcia.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid’s healthy financial situation means that they could have easily signed the Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappe during the summer transfer window if the French outfit had agreed to sell the player. Los Blancos tried to sign the World Cup winner with multiple bids only to face rejection every single time.
Barcelona have undoubtedly fallen behind the likes of Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid over the past year and their financial reality means that their league rivals are likely to pull further ahead of them in the coming months.
The Spanish giants are in need of a major squad overhaul but they simply do not have the funds to bring in necessary signings and elevate the quality of the playing squad.
Barcelona have had to rely on young players so far this season and they have made a mediocre start to the campaign. Furthermore, Ronald Koeman has struggled to get the best out of his players so far and Barcelona’s managerial situation is a mess as well.
It remains to be seen how the situation evolves over the next few months and whether Joan Laporta and sort out this mess soon.
