Barça's wage bill cut to €530m but they want to reduce to around €450m

One of the main objectives of both the sporting and financial departments at FC Barcelona is to reduce the club's wage bill, which this season stood at around €656 million (including amortisation).

This amount was reached after this board of directors managed to reduce the amount they found when they arrived in March 2021, only to increase it again this season due to the need to reinforce the team with the signings of players such as Ferran Torres, Jules Koundé, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski.

The club's objective, as the president, Joan Laporta, has acknowledged on more than one occasion, is for the wage bill next season to be between €450m and €470m. And the objective is on the way to being achieved, as at the moment, without taking into account the movements that still have to take place in the chapter of both departures and additions, Barça's sporting wage bill is already around 530 million euros.

The captains

This amount has been reached after the confirmation of the departures of Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, as well as the departures of Gerard Piqué and Memphis Depay during the winter transfer window. In addition, Antoine Griezmann's permanent transfer to Atlético Madrid, freeing up the Frenchman's high salary, also helped.

It is worth including in this important reduction of the sporting wage bill some already confirmed departures in the other professional teams of the club, as well as the definitive settlement of the commitments acquired by the club with its athletes during the coronavirus pandemic, both in the form of deferred amounts and through the agreement reached through a negotiating table, with salary reductions and also deferrals of some payments.

At the club, they value what has been achieved, bearing in mind that the sporting wage bill in the 2020/21 season, when Laporta's board of directors arrived at the club, was €616m, €510m of which corresponded to the first team.

In addition, they also highlight the fact that the valuation of the current squad is better than that of the 2020/21 season, while also being less expensive. The squad of that season had a valuation of €730m, while the current squad is worth around €770m.

Don't count

The club's objective is to continue to reduce the €530m that currently make up Barça's sporting wage bill this summer. This amount includes the €50m euros that five players who have been on loan this season will cost the club, who are returning this summer but who do not count for the first team. This is the case of Lenglet, Umtiti, Dest, Collado and Gustavo Maia. Umtiti, for example, will cost Barça €20m. The club's intention is to get rid of all of them.

Other teams

Another important part of the €530 million, around €90m, corresponds to everything that is not first-team football. That is to say, the women's first team, the professional basketball, handball, futsal and roller hockey teams, as well as the cost of the club's grassroots football, an amount that the board of directors always consider more of an investment than an expense.

In this sense, it is understandable that Barça want to apply a significant reduction in the budget of the other teams, especially in basketball, which will affect some important players such as Mirotic, with a very high salary, one of the most important in European basketball. It will also affect another of those who have been important players in recent years, Cory Higgins.