La Liga to make new spending limits for 2021/22 public; Barcelona drop to 7th from 2nd

La Liga is set to make the salary limits for all clubs for the 2021/22 season public, as reported by COPE.

The report also offers an insight into the salary caps for the clubs, and the figures for Barcelona do not make for pleasant reading.

Barcelona, according to the update, had a salary cap of €347 million for the 2020/21 campaign, which was the second-highest below Real Madrid, which stood at €473million.

Fast forward a year, and both clubs have gone in the opposite directions. Real Madrid’s salary cap limit has soared high to a whopping €739million. As for Barcelona, it has dropped down to a measly €97million – which sees them drop to seventh on the list.

While it was no top secret that Barcelona were going through financial problems, this update has given a clearer picture of how dire the situation is.

The likes of Sevilla (€200million), Atletico Madrid (€171million), Villarreal (€159million), Real Sociedad (€127million) and Athletic Club (€111million) all have a higher salary cap than Barcelona for the ongoing campaign.

A drop of over €280million in the salary limit over the year meant that it was never going to be feasible for the Catalans to retain the services of Lionel Messi while also being able to register their new signings.

To put things into perspective, Messi’s new contract that he would have signed in case he stayed at Barcelona after taking a massive pay cut would still have come up to €36million. That is about 37% of the Catalans entire salary limit for the 2021/22 season.

Several clubs have suffered over the past year due to the pandemic and the lack of revenue. Valencia, too, have seen their wage cap drop from €93million to €30million – the lowest among the clubs in La Liga.