OPINION: Barça paying the price of poor recruitment in the past

Never before has the concept of a wage bill been on the lips of so many people. This concept, which has been incessantly discussed in FC Barcelona's general meetings in recent years, is now the main topic of discussion in the city's bars and on social media platforms, with everyone dying to know whether or not Joan Laporta wil manage to tie Leo Messi down to a new contract.

We mentioned this in our column a few weeks ago, and the worst fears are now being confirmed: the financial losses of last season combined with the slow recovery of the club's revenue streams are leaving Barça with a spending capacity inferior to that of Atlético de Madrid. Furthermore, the fact that Messi did not sign a new contract before 30 June means that, as of today, he is not technically registered as a LaLiga player.

Let's address each problem individually. Firstly, what is the wage bill? Put simply, it is the amount of money that the club sets aside to paying the salaries of its sporting staff - including Barça B and the various youth teams - and the amortisation of its signings. As such, those who generate the most talent of their own are rewarded with a greater capacity to pay player salaries.

What is Barça's problem? As a consequence of awful recruitment in past seasons, Laporta needs to set aside 177.5 million euros in unpaid transfer fees. Added to this is the spending cap that LaLiga president Javier Tebas is likely to introduce for the 2021-22 season.

The warnings of the LaLiga chief, highly criticised in Barcelona, are actually a lifesaver for Barça, as it gives the club an ideal scapegoat for facing the negotiations that the previous board and management were unable to address.

This isn't simply a case of deferring salaries and paying them in the future. If the club wants to get back on its feet sooner rather than later, it needs to introduce a definitive salary reduction backdated to 2020-21, since Bartomeu and Tusquets failed to seal a pact with the dressing room a few months ago.

Barça paid almost 80 milion euros more than Real Madrid on sporting salaries in the 2019-2020 season. Today, around a dozen Barça players earn almost as much as the second best-paid player of the Madrid-based club. And there is no temporary solution to this. I'm sorry, Joan, but they've put you in the awful situation of having to say NO to the players. Without their complicity, not only are they at risk of not getting paid, but the club is at risk of becoming irrelevant in the short term. The good news: people seem to understand the situation, and the players will surely (?) put the club first.