Barcelona’s financial situation continues to improve after LaLiga confirmed their annual spending cap is now over €463 million ($483.7m), an increase of nearly €40m from the beginning of the season.
At this same time last year, Barça’s limit had been slashed to €204m.
The boost to the club’s economic situation comes after the sale of 475 VIP seats at Spotify Camp Nou, which is still being redeveloped, for a maximum of 30 years to two different investors from the Middle East. Sources told ESPN the two deals in total are worth around €100m.
Barça’s cap remains the second highest in LaLiga, a long way behind Real Madrid, whose limit is €755m, as it was at the start of the season.
Atlético Madrid (€314m), Real Sociedad (€160m) and Villarreal (€135m) complete the top five, while Sevilla’s financial problems have led to their cap being cut from an already low €2.5m to a measly €684,000, the lowest in the league.
The limit is roughly determined by the difference between a team’s revenue minus non-sporting outgoings and debt repayments.
The final figure accounts for the maximum amount clubs should spend on wages, bonuses and amortisation payments on transfers across a season, not how much they are necessarily spending.
Clubs that are in excess of their spending limit, as Sevilla are, are subject to severe financial restrictions in the transfer market which allow them to spend only a fraction of anything they save or raise.
Barça, meanwhile, as LaLiga confirmed in January, are now within their limit and are able to spend 100% of anything they save or raise, known as the 1:1 rule.
However, there is still an element of uncertainty over the registrations of Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor.
LaLiga and the Spanish Football Federation [RFEF] say Barça missed a Dec. 31 deadline to prove they were compliant with their spending cap, claiming the VIP seat deal was completed afterward.
As a result, Olmo and Victor were unregistered, with RFEF regulations not allowing players to be registered for a second time in the same season, even if the club could afford it.
Barça won an injunction against LaLiga and the RFEF’s ruling from Spain’s sports ministry, the Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD), who agreed to investigate their appeal, which could take up to three months.
LaLiga subsequently counter-appealed the CSD’s decision, but Olmo and Víctor remain available for selection as it stands.
