The case of Lionel Messi returns to the attention of the Barcelona club. This has nothing to do with the earthquake caused last season, when the Argentine star seemed to be one step away from saying goodbye, however the issue becomes once again current.
The contract that connects Messi with the Blaugrana, from 2003, expires in June, returning to attention, once again, the possibility of renewing the agreement, which for Messi may be the last in his career.
The footballer intends to renew his contract for a high figure – 50 million euros net per season. Economic conditions have not yet been confirmed, but there are rumors from Spain that an agreement has been reached for two years, until 2023. Formalization is expected in the coming days.
However, Barcelona must also balance the effects of the pandemic, which will lead to a new budget reduction in 2020/21, and above all will have to deal with the salary ceiling set by the Spanish League.
But what does it mean when it comes to the “salary ceiling” in the Spanish championship? Technically there is talk of “limiting the cost of the sports team” (Limite de coste de plantilla deportiva). It is essentially a cost constraint that each club proposes and justifies in relation to the available budget, leaving the La Liga Validity Authority the task of approving the proposed threshold.
If this restriction is not considered appropriate, the same Authority may seek to adjust the figure, until it receives an amount that ensures the financial stability of the club. However, this is a limit that societies do not necessarily have to reach. They must stay below the figure set and announced by the Spanish La Liga in a press release on its website.
As can be seen in the La Liga regulations, the “cost limit of a sports team” includes several items:
- Wages, fixed or variable
- Wages for the sale of image rights, collective or individual
- Depreciation of player acquisition costs
- Social security obligations
- Expenses for the salary (or other type) of players transferred on a temporary basis to other clubs
Even for the 2021/21 season – the same thing happened for 2021/22, La Liga published for each club, of the first and second category, the spending limits for the season. As every year, data were published on 42 professional clubs, inevitably affected by the coronavirus crisis.
La Liga has decided to tighten the belt for the 2021/22 season, confirming stricter rules for clubs that have crossed the limit set last season: among them, Barcelona itself, but also Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.