Barcelona reduce wage bill by €162m following summer of sales

Barcelona have managed to drastically reduce their wage bill, following the closure of the 2023 summer transfer window, with their accounts looking healthier in terms of the balance sheet.

According to Sport, last summer the wage bill was at €566m which represented a majorn part of the organisation’s turnover, around 73%.

Since, they have managed to cut that figure by €162m over the course of the last 12 months, representing a drop to €54% of their turnover, far closer to what it should be. The current figure lies at €405m.

This summer the additions of Oriol Romeu, Joao Cancelo, Joao Felix, Ilkay Gundogan and Inigo Martinez have cost the club €51m in terms of price and wages, while sales of around €81.5m have left them firmly in the black for the transfer window at the least.

🚨 Barça has reduced its wage bill, which is currently close to €405M, by almost €162M. The ratio of revenue based on UEFA calculations has come down from 73% to 54%, which is in line with the regulations. @sport

— barcacentre (@barcacentre) September 5, 2023

Overall, between the savings made on salaries and the fees earned from transfers, Barcelona are up around €78m in total. That wage to turnover figure is considered healthy at that percentage too.

Nevertheless, they are not out of the woods yet. The Blaugrana are still over their salary limit, with the deferred salaries and debt from the past still weighing heavy on the club. They also continue to sell assets in order to keep the balance sheet in the black, and have just reliniquished control of around half of BarcaVision.

Barcelona have also lost Director of Football Mateu Alemany too, with the Blaugrana instead option for Deco as Sporting Director. Alemany was in charge of the vast majority of these deals too, and now the pressure will be on Deco to work with limited resources