Barcelona‘s squad spending limit has dropped to €351 million ($411.8m) — down €112m from last winter — while Real Madrid‘s has increased to €761m, LaLiga said on Friday.
The league’s squad cost limits, which are made public after each transfer window, denote the maximum amount that each club is permitted to spend on first-team players, as well as coaching staff, reserve and youth teams.
In a presentation on Friday, LaLiga said that while Madrid’s limit — the league’s highest — had grown from €754m to €761m, Barça’s had been cut from €463m to €351m.
The league cited Barcelona’s auditors refusal to include — for now — €100m in income from the sale of VIP boxes at Spotify Camp Nou, which is currently being rebuilt, in the club’s latest accounts.
Barça have faced persistent problems in registering new signings within LaLiga’s spending limits in recent seasons, including for the arrivals of Joan García, Marcus Rashford and Roony Bardghji this summer.
“The €112 million [difference] coincides with the 100 million from the VIP boxes,” LaLiga director general Javier Gomez said. “There was one [Barça] auditor who said yes, and then the current one said no. That’s the cause.”
The club’s return to Camp Nou has been delayed, with the team playing this weekend’s LaLiga game with Getafe at the 6,000-capacity Estadi Johan Cruyff, after hosting Valencia there last weekend.
“I’m convinced they’ll resolve it, with the VIP boxes or in another way,” Gomez said. “They’ll overcome [their problems], 100% for sure … Barcelona are still functioning, even without their stadium, where they’re losing a lot of income.
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“They’ve come through the difficulties they had, now they’re playing at the Johan Cruyff, and last year too [playing at Montjuic]. They’re going to recover, for sure, the question is when, in three months or 12 months.”
Gomez said the league could not confirm if the €100m in VIP box income would be added to the club’s spending limit, once the team begins playing again at Camp Nou.
“We’re not auditors,” Gomez said. “You’d have to ask their auditor if they’d accept it or not. It’s connected with the return [to Camp Nou], and other financial questions, it looks like that, but we can’t say for sure.”
The third-highest spending limit in the league is Atletico Madrid’s, at €327m, while the lowest is Sevilla‘s — hit by dropping out of European qualification in recent seasons — at €22m.
