MADRID, Sept 10 — La Liga has raised Barcelona’s spending limit by EUR800 million (RM3.6 billion), bringing it out of a spending deficit after the Catalan side sold off chunks of assets to patch up its finances, the Spanish league said.

Barcelona were given a cap of EUR96 million last year, which was slashed by January to minus 144 million euros — meaning the team had to find savings elsewhere to sign new players — after they ran up debts and future liabilities of EUR1.35 billion, with EUR673 million owed to banks.

As a result of their financial turnaround, the league said on Friday it has given Barcelona a cap of EUR656 million for the 2022-23 season.

To offset losses and comply with La Liga’s financial fair play rules, Barcelona sold 25 per cent of their domestic television rights to US investment firm Sixth Street for the next 25 years in two deals worth over EUR500 million.

The club raised an additional EUR200 million from the sale of a 49 per cent stake in Barca Studios in two separate transactions, while also signing a long-term sponsorship deal with streaming giant Spotify in March.

That allowed Barcelona to spend more than EUR150 million on Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde, while Andreas Christensen, Franck Kessie, Hector Bellerin and Marcos Alonso all arrived on free transfers.

La Liga president Javier Tebas said Barcelona will have to continue to reduce their wage bill to maintain their spending limit for next season.

“Without the (sale of assets) it may not be so high next season. They may have to reduce their outgoings by around EUR200 million by selling players or even (selling more) assets,” Tebas told reporters.

When asked if La Liga had been too generous in accommodating the club’s needs, Tebas said: “Not at all. The same rules are applied to all the clubs in Spain. To register Kounde, the president of Barcelona had to put up a personal guarantee.

“Is there a risk of bankruptcy? In my opinion, I don’t think so, not at all. They have a high wage bill but a lot of equity, although… they have had and (will) have to reduce the wage bill.” Real Madrid have the highest spending cap in the league at EUR683 million, while Atletico Madrid are third behind Barcelona at EUR341 million.

La Liga’s spending limit accounts for the maximum amount clubs can spend on salaries, bonuses and amortisation payments on transfers across a season. — Reuters