One of the main objectives for Barcelona heading into the upcoming summer transfer window is to slash their bloated wage bill.
The Blaugrana’s salary miss for the 2022/23 campaign was a massive €655 million, and for the club to operate freely in the market without any Financial Fair Play restrictions, La Liga had instructed that they need to reduce it by at least €200 million, on top of generating fresh revenue as well.
It is a necessity for the Catalans if they wish to register the contract renewals of some of their key players as well as operate under the 1:1 rule in the market.
It appeared a gargantuan task, but according to Ferran Correas of SPORT, Barcelona are close to achieving their objective of lowering their wage bill by a massive €200 million this summer.
This has come about thanks to the exits of three club veterans in Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba.
Pique retired from the game altogether in November last year, relieving a sizeable chunk of the club’s salary budget. Earlier this month, Busquets also confirmed his intentions to leave, which will again save a major portion of the wage bill for next season.
Busquets’ announcement was followed by that of Alba, which came earlier this week, with the left-back even waiving off a big chunk of the deferred salary owed to him.
As such, Ferran Correas is reporting that between Pique, Alba, and Busquets, Barcelona will be saving a salary mass worth up to €120 million.
Beyond that, the Blaugrana also permanently sold Antoine Griezmann to Atletico Madrid earlier this season, which also frees up a large space on the wage bill.
Mateu Alemany had previously mentioned that the club had lowered the salary mass by around €90 million with Pique and Griezmann leaving.
On top of this, Barcelona have also made cuts to budgets in other departments while there are some changes being made in the club’s other sports teams such as handball and basketball as well.
Furthermore, Barça are spending around €105 million on the academy, women’s football. and grassroots football, which they intend to reduce by €20 million.
All this could help them lower their wage bill to €450 million, allowing them to operate under the 1:1 rule in the summer market.
