It has been a tough year for clubs throughout Spanish football and there is an acceptance that the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.
Indeed, La Liga is set to propose a new round of salary cuts over the coming weeks for all its 42 member clubs due to an adjustment in budgets this season, fuelled by the continued absence of fans and subsequent lower revenues both commercially and in matchday income.
The current budgets throughout the leagues are based on an assumption of 25 percent of stadiums being filled from December 2020 and full stadiums by February 2021 – two outcomes which we now know are far from reality.
Fans have not been able to return to stadiums across La Liga since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in the nation in March 2020.
2playbook.com has now published information that a new round of salary cuts are expected with a €700m shortfall in budgets which now need to be tackled ahead of the end of the season on 30 June.
The report highlight CEO sources from within clubs who say that the only way they can manage the situation is by reducing salaries, even though all clubs are reluctant to do so as it could weaken their first-team squad.
It is said that the approach from Barcelona – who managed to defer a total payment of €172m in salaries which will be repaid over the course of four seasons – is likely to be a model followed throughout the league, the report adds.