Barcelona paid a fine for waste and activation of the Financial Fair Play regulations. This stems from Barcelona’s acquisition of Dani Alves, Andreas Christensen and Ronald Araújo’s contract extension.
Excessive spending in Barcelona is a very popular topic. Last summer alone, Barcelona spent more than $100 million on Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski and Jules Koundé. However, the problem is more in the contracts. In addition to these three transfers, Barcelona signed Franck Kessié, Andreas Christensen, Marcos Alonso and Héctor Bellerín as free transfers. Those free transfers have subsequent contracts. That is what calls into question the Financial Fair Play with Barcelona.
These FFP rules belong to LaLiga, which does oversee the contracts and salaries of its clubs. Also, this is in relation to the 2021/22 Barcelona accounts.
The fine Barcelona faces is around $800,000. However, the club does not voluntarily respond to the fine. Instead, he plans to take the fines to court to challenge the sanctions set by LaLiga. There is still no set date on when there would be a trial for Barcelona.
Barcelona weakened by LaLiga’s Financial Fair Play
Barcelona could only try to acquire these players by pulling a series of ‘levers’ to avoid LaLiga’s Financial Fair Play. However, as LaLiga president Javier Tebas pointed out, those were short-term solutions to long-term problems.
“The levers have worked for them this season but not for the next one,” Tebas said.
Barcelona exceeded their salary cap, which is different for each team based on income and expenses. Marca points out that Barcelona’s debt puts a serious limit on his ability to work within his salary cap. So the $800k fine comes at an inopportune time.
Barcelona is not listed as a major contender in the upcoming January transfer window. The club exhausted a large part of its transfer budget in the summer window. However, he has performed well in the league as a result. That being said, the club fell out of the Champions League group stage for the second year in a row. Now it competes in the Europa League.
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