Laporta and the red line that condemned Bartomeu

BarcelonaThe current top scorer in the major European leagues, Raphinha Dias, has just renewed his contract. In accordance with the new clauses, the Brazilian forward, who offers stratospheric performance when muscular injuries respect him, signed until June 30, 2030, when he will be about to turn 34. Beyond the heterodoxy of the fact that the agent who brought him to Barça –Anderson Luis de Souza, Deco– is now the club's sporting director, the agreement will have a positive short-term impact on the club's accounts and on the calculation of financial fair play. Since the footballer's amortization is spread out and the bulk of the salary increase will not become effective until next summer, the 1:1 rule is maintained by the skin of its teeth for the winter market, in which if there is any exit like that of Alejandro Balde, it will be possible to aim to sign a center-back.

Small print aside, Raphinha will have a star contract like the one just started by Rodrigo Hernández, who has arrived at Barça with a high salary –he was the 2024 Ballon d'Or winner– to be distributed over four fiscal years. The midfielder from Madrid, 30 years old, is a present-day signing that will be paid dearly in the future, when his performance levels decline due to age. And that is because to fit his fees into the League's salary cap, they had to be divided. Likewise, with the four-year contract, the impact of an amortization of more than 60 million euros was helped to be spread out. Put quickly, it is better to compute 15 million each year than 20. This tactic, taken to the extreme by the board of Josep Maria Bartomeu especially in times of covid, is being used again today with Joan Laporta at the head of the entity to maintain the competitiveness of the squad in a context of economic tightening.

Lamine Yamal is another example of an upward trend. The Rocafonda native signed his first senior contract a year and a half ago with a base of more than 20 million gross euros per year that will go up in the coming years. He signed until 2031, but Barça already expects that if the footballer continues to progress, they will have to renew him again. It happened with Leo Messi, a prodigy who deserved raises long before they were due by contract. If Lamine Yamal complements his individual performance with major collective achievements, it will be a matter of time before he wins the Ballon d'Or, something that usually comes with an improvement in conditions. Without going any further, Harry Kane, the latest to lift the award for the best player of the year, has just renewed his contract with Bayern Munich for 25 million net per year until 2029. These are record amounts in the Bundesliga and a ceiling that only competes with the fortune that Real Madrid pays to Kylian Mbappé.

In the list of ascending or spaced-out contracts at Barça, there is also that of Gabriel Jesus, signed at the last minute in the last transfer market after Atlético de Madrid's refusal to sell Julián Álvarez. It was planned that the Brazilian would sign for two seasons with an optional one, but since the club asked him for an initial gesture in the form of a salary reduction to adjust his contract to financial fair play, in exchange it had to consolidate a third year for him. Once again, the urgencies of the present weighed more than burdening Barça's salary mass of the future.

An upward trend endorsed by Barça's accounts

The upward trend in sports spending is a reality if one analyzes the latest audited accounts approved by the members at last September's assembly. At the close of the 2025-2026 financial year, the total figure for this concept was 571 million, 6 more than budgeted. Looking ahead to this season, Barça expects to cross the 600 million euro barrier again, reaching 636, but precedents suggest that the final figure could be even higher, as spending budgets have fallen short since Laporta regained the reins of the institution in March 2021. The increase of 65 million in relation to the last closing is mainly due to the rise in salary expenses for the men's first football team, not the women's team or the professional sections.

These 636 million represent a (still) healthy 53.2% of the club's projected total revenue (1.195 billion), but the budgeted increase in spending will collide in the 2027-2028 season with the drop in income associated with a new exile to Montjuïc, with the resulting limitation this will mean regarding financial fair play. Hence why Barça and Goldman Sachs are pressuring Limak so that there are no further delays in the Camp Nou works. Avoiding trouble with the inevitable rise in sports spending depends on operating the stadium at full capacity.

What is computed within these 636 million? The most important part is the fixed remuneration for athletes and technical teams, as well as collective bonuses agreed upon for winning titles. Also to be added is the amortization of signings, which is the annual amount imputed in accounting for the acquisition of players' federative rights, dividing the transfer price by the years of the contract. Other concepts are image rights, taxes derived from team emoluments, and commissions for agents and intermediaries. Regarding this last point, which amounted to 16 million in the last financial year, it should be noted that Barça only separates from the main bulk those commissions paid at the time of transactions (signings or renewals). Those that are paid annually from the player's salary and end up in the pockets of their representatives are not highlighted.

For comparison, Real Madrid anticipates total sports expenses of 707 million for this season, a record figure that Florentino Pérez hopes to cushion with total revenues exceeding 1.4 billion. The upward trend also affects the Madrid club, which has once again used its checkbook this year to avoid a third consecutive season without titles.