Barcelona’s ongoing financial tightrope was back in focus this week, with La Liga executive Javier Gómez outlining both the challenges the club faces and the broader concerns about competitive balance across Spanish football. Speaking at The College of Economists of Catalonia, during the presentation of the report The Finances of the Five Major European Leagues 2023/24, Gómez underscored the growing divide between Spain’s biggest clubs and the rest of the league, as well as the continued rigidity of financial controls.
Gómez expressed worry about how rapidly revenues have grown for the continent’s giants compared to smaller sides. He warned that a landscape where resources concentrate among a small group of clubs could weaken domestic competition. While he emphasized the value of solidarity, equal opportunity, and the promotion and relegation system that defines European football, he also repeated his stance on the importance of maintaining a fair distribution of television money. “The big clubs generate sponsorships on their own, that is not going to be shared, but television rights are,” he said.
Barcelona’s financial challenges have been especially visible in recent seasons, from the impact of major structural expenses to the temporary closure of the Camp Nou for renovation. Gómez stressed that the club’s spending on its various sports sections, academy programs, and women’s team counts against its salary limit unless those costs are backed by net assets or external contributions. “If you let the reserve team spend and no one replaces it, you are going to lose money. That is the economic logic,” he explained.
He stressed that Barcelona’s salary limit would depend on the spending across divisions such as youth teams, men’s teams, and women’s teams.
“If you have one billion in income and 400 million in structural expenses, you have 600 million for your sports squad. What do you want to spend it on? If you spend it all on the other sections, then you have zero for the first team. If you spend 100 on sections, then 500 for the first team. The important thing is to not lose money.”
Despite the limitations, La Liga’s corporate director insisted that Barcelona are not stuck. Under the 1:1 rule, he said, the club can participate normally in the transfer market as long as it maintains balance between income and spending. He pointed to internal cost adjustments and long-term planning as keys to restoring financial stability, noting that even with reduced revenue during the stadium reconstruction, the club is working to generate recurring profit. “The club has to recover what it did with levers or not, combining that process with not losing competitiveness,” he said. “It is not just about paying debt but maintaining a sustainable financial balance.”
Even so, the road back to full financial flexibility remains uneven. Overall, Barcelona are on a trajectory of recovery and saw their limit increase after the winter transfer window at the beginning of this year. But the most recent squad cost limits released after the summer window paint a more complicated picture. La Liga cut Barça’s cap to €351 million, down from €463 million last winter, at the same time that Real Madrid’s limit rose to €761 million.
The main reason for the downturn is an accounting dispute tied to the ongoing Camp Nou reconstruction. The club intended to record around €100 million in revenue from the sale of future VIP boxes, but the current auditor refused to certify the income for this year’s accounts. As Javier Gómez explained, “The €112 million [difference] coincides with the 100 million from the VIP boxes. There was one auditor who said yes, and then the current one said no. That’s the cause.”
The reduction added another twist to a summer in which Barcelona struggled to register new signings Joan García, Marcus Rashford, and Roony Bardghji within the rules. Even with long-term revenue expected to grow once the refurbished stadium opens, the club’s short-term flexibility remains fragile, influenced as much by accounting criteria as by sporting performance.
Longer term, the return to the revamped Camp Nou is expected to play a decisive role in Barcelona’s financial recovery. Gómez emphasized that closing the stadium temporarily meant a revenue drop of around €70 million, but he believes the club is taking the right steps. The challenge, he said, lies in balancing sporting ambition with responsible management. As he put it, winning consistently cannot be sacrificed in the name of rebuilding. That balance, he noted, will confront not just the current administration but “those who come in the next thousand years.”
