Barça questions financial fair play logic as club board puts up €7M personal guarantee

FC Barcelona's Director of Professional Sports, Xavier O'Callaghan, questioned La Liga's financial fair play logic at a press conference held in the club's facilities on Monday. 

The Barça official explained the impact that the league's financial regulation is having on other teams and sections of the club, as FC Barcelona fields not only a men's first team, but also a women's team, youth teams, and professional basketball and handball sides.

O'Callaghan complained that the financial rules were "unfair" on Barça due to the fact that the Catalan club is a multi-sports entity, and admitted that the board would live "more easily" if the teams from other sports were not interconnected with La Liga's financial fair play rules, meaning they have a direct impact on the men's first football team. 

Personal guarantee

Last week, Barça's board members had to offer a personal guarantee of €7 million to ultimately be able to register new signings Joan García and Marcus Rashford, who both made their competitive debuts for the club in a 0-3 win away to Mallorca over the weekend. 

The guarantee was necessary due to overspending in the club's "non-inscribable" salary mass of the entire club in its various different teams during the past season.

The club were keen to point out that this guarantee was a move aimed at protecting the club's competitiveness across the board, even at the potential cost of loss of personal wealth. 

Despite the overall €7 million deviation, O'Callaghan noted that the basketball and women's football sections did not exceed their individual planned salary mass for the past season. The deviation was a collective figure across the non-inscribable group.

Impact on sections

The financial fair play rules mean that Barça has had to tighten the belt across the club to comply with regulation, and this has meant a direct budgetary impact on the basketball and women's teams, as the club looks to make all the moving pieces fit. 

For the upcoming season, the basketball section's salary mass will be €28.75 million, down from last season's €32.5 million.

This season, Barça Femení will have a budget of €13.75 million, part of an overall budget of €56 million for all its professional teams that are not the men's football first team. 

The women's team has been the focus of much attention this summer, with the departure of numerous high-profile stars, although O'Callaghan explained that only the basketball team is seeing a direct budget cut. 

Ingrid Engen, Fridolina Rolfö, Ellie Roebuck, Jana Fernández, Bruna Vilamala, and Martina Fernández are all departing Barcelona this summer. O'Callaghan explained that the market in women's football has become "inflated," referring to the growth of the women's game particularly in England, and that more spending is needed to keep big players.

As such, the Catalan club will be focussing more on home-grown talent. 

The club say they are committed to staying "100% competitive" across all professional sections, despite the economic challenges and La Liga's financial regulations.