The reasons why LaLiga does not allow the registration of FC Barcelona

Because of FC Barcelona can’t sign any players this winter or sign up Gavi either Araujo under the new conditions of your contract? Many FC Barcelona fans are asking this question. More so when you just had an income as a result of selling the Memphis (salary removed and the transfer to Atlético) in addition to unsubscribing Pique after his withdrawal. Here he also released the salary mass for the salary he agreed with the former Barça player. A loss, by the way, that he notified LaLiga yesterday.

And then why can’t he do anything? The explanation lies in the famous Template Cost Limit. That is, the costs assumed by the players of its current squad in Barcelona in the total budget of the club and that is surpassed around some €200 million.

This is an unsustainable situation for LaLiga within its economic control. A control not limited to the immediate future, like this winter market; but it places the horizon into the future and the ages to come. And right now the situation regarding FC Barcelona is worrying.

Message for summer: cut back on excess

From LaLiga, they have been sending the same message for months: the club must reduce this excess next summer. Of the 600 million current up to about 400 million like any other club in Europe. But this summer, unlike in the past, he will not be able to use the famous ‘levers’ to help reduce this wage bill. In the new regulations approved by the clubs in November, income obtained from the sale of assets or any extraordinary income in the future cannot be included for the Squad Cost Limit in its entirety in the first season or in the previous season; rather, it must be distributed over as many years as the agreement or assignment. In other words, if a lever has generated 30 million euros for the club, I will not be able to include it in its total both in the season that is now ending and in the next one, as if they did last summer. You will have to count it for years as the agreement is signed. If, for example, it reaches six years, they can only give five million per season.

they look to the future

So, Barcelona has only two ways to try to alleviate this excess: selling players from the current team, and the higher their salary, the better, like other income from sponsorship or similar. The next question that arises: And why can’t they register Gavi or Araujo to their new contracts if they were already registered in August when the season started? More so when they have a sales margin of Memphis or after goodbye Pique? Well, the problem is the same. In order to do this, and with the new regulation of the League from the end of last November, the employer’s verification body must first check that Barcelona will not exceed this Limit. But not only look to the present, but also to the future. And that brings us back to the beginning. Barcelona got over it and will have it next summer. Any registration now, even for players who already have a contract and just need to update their new contractual situation, only serves to increase it.

And all of the above is added to another new rule that has just come into effect and directly affects clubs like Barcelona. Both for exceeding this squad cost limit and for using or planning to use so-called “non-recurring” revenue-generating operations that affect the Calculation of your Sports Squad Cost Limit or your capacity to registration, you must create a Treasury Plan. And that Plan affects the current season and the next two. Treasury Plan to be certified by the League itself.

LaLiga is asking for a guarantee

This Treasury Plan affects the current season and the next two. A Treasury plan which must then be validated by the League itself and the balance must be positive in all of them. When considering this balance, the financing capacity of the club (in this case Barcelona) is considered according to its historical data in the past, the situation and the financial forecast of the club in the period covered by the plan. That means past, present and future. And you should also record the specific level of net debt in euros and future developments. And the club’s debt can never be higher than what corresponds to the alternative scenario without relying on non-recurring operations or ‘levers’.

All this explains why Barcelona does not have the go-ahead from LaLiga to do anything in this market that ends on January 31. And you won’t have it. Either it frees up salary mass (perhaps by selling players or even reducing the salary of the current squad) or generates income such as sponsorship or similar, or this problem will return in the summer.