FC Barcelona can spend 67 million euros more than Real Madrid in paying its staff and the main members of its coaching staff. Azulgranas and meringues, with almost 633 million euros and a little more than 566,000 euros, respectively, lead a ranking imposed by the League to all the First and Second Clubs that forces the teams to commit not to exceed a limit established at the beginning of the season. season. The clubs propose an amount to La Liga, which is the one that finally stipulates how much they can spend in response to the economic situation of the clubs

As for the concepts included are fixed and variable salaries, social security, collective premiums, acquisition costs (including commissions for agents) and amortizations (amount of purchase of the players charged annually based on the number of years of contract of the player), according to LaLiga, responsible for validating each proposal by the clubs of this limit.

In this regard, the agency clarified that each request does not always correspond to its maximum limit and that each club can request the slot it deems appropriate to meet its budget of sports expenses, provided that it does not exceed the maximum, and that it does not imply that is going to be consumed in its entirety. Thus, for example, the Catalan team has a limit 125 million higher than last season, while the Real Madrid grows by 67 million.


Behind them, continues Atletico de Madrid, with 293 million (237,767 in 2017-18), and the 'Top 5' complete the Valencia (164,684) and Sevilla (162,783), which exchange positions compared to last season . With regard to the teams that have lower salary limits are the three newly promoted: Valladolid (23,882), Huesca (29,328) and Rayo Vallecano (33,077)


On the other hand, in LaLiga 1/2/3, Málaga, with 25,245 million, is the team with the highest salary limit ahead of Las Palmas Sports Union (19,284) and Deportivo de La Coruña (18,513), the others two descendants. The Reus, which has had a controversy with LaLiga in this regard, is the 'bottom' with just 3,000 million.

Spain is the only major European league that forces clubs to meet the salary cap. Premier, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga (where even the minimum wage does not exist) articulate control mechanisms, but the main difference of the Spanish case is that the audit is also done a priori. As set by the regulations, before the start of the season, LaLiga uses a computer program that is based on three premises to make the calculation: the income and expenses of the previous campaign, the income provided by the League itself and the transfers. To avoid large leaps from one year to the next, the average of the last three years is taken into account in the income chapter. In this way, the subtraction between expenses and income sets the cap.


Although the measure is new in the European leagues, some signs suggest that the trend is reversing. Although Fair Play Financial rules have been in place for years to ensure the viability of the clubs, last January UEFA began to explore the possibility of setting a salary cap of 100 million on the difference between expenses and income. But the salary cap culture, which is very well established in the United States, is also expanding in Asia. The Chinese league plans to implement a cap equivalent to 75% of the annual income of the clubs as of 2021.