The days of €100m signings in Spanish football are over as clubs must come to terms with the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
That is according to the front pages of the Spanish sporting press on Wednesday, who say that clubs are now acknowledging that finances will be pushed following the global lockdown.
The coronavirus outbreak has brought sport across the world to a halt with Spanish football suspended indefinitely – meaning that all clubs have no income from matchdays or, for the elite clubs, their museums.
Spain is now behind only Italy on the global scale for the most deaths due to the virus, with the nation now 17 days into a 30-day state of lockdown.
Madrid have been linked with big-money moves for players such as Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe this summer, but those ambitions have now been shifted due to the economic situation.
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu said in an interview with Diario Sport this week: “We predict that this transfer market will have a lot less money because of the (coronavirus) pandemic, but there will still be a lot of moves and I predict player exchange deals.”
A Barcelona statement on Monday confirmed that the senior squad had agreed to a wage reduction of over 70% until the resumption of football.
Other Spanish clubs are exercising an ERTE – Spain’s temporary redundancy scheme which is activated by the state of emergency within the country, with businesses losing access to their profits.
