The economic miracle of the women's Barça
The blue and red entity has quadrupled profits based on the control of the wage bill
BarcelonaBarça Women continues its upward trajectory on the pitch –where it is the team to beat–, but also off the field of play. The blaugrana entity has closed the 2025-26 financial year with a positive profit of 8.525 million euros. Exceptional figures that make women's and men's football the only two branches of the club with a positive result. The data also show a clear upward trend for Barça Women, which has gone from having losses of 2.8 million euros in 2021 to a profit of 8.5 million in 2026. Furthermore, in the last year the result of the financial year has quadrupled, going from 2 million euros to 8.5 million.
“Revenue is based, mainly, on three items: marketing and advertising [the one that earns the most money, 19.7 million], competition [6.1 M] and broadcasts and television rights [2.9 M]. All in all, it has risen by around 30%”, points out Oscar Elvira, director of the university master's degree in sports management at UPF, to the ARA. Furthermore, the fact of having opened the Camp Nou twice – Real Madrid and Bayern Munich – has helped to increase revenue. To give an example, in the women's classic, two million euros were raised just from ticket sales.
The other major item that helps to obtain a positive profit is the containment of personnel expenses. The twenty players (and some members of the coaching staff led by Pere Romeu) who were part of the 2025-26 Barça first team squad had a total salary of 13 million euros, a figure higher than that of the previous season –11.4 M–, but economically viable. “Barça has not gone crazy when it comes to renewing and paying overly high salaries. It has controlled it very well and is lucky to bring out good players from the youth academy,” adds Elvira in reference to the fact that it saves having to make large transfers for players. These figures include Alexia Putellas, Ona Batlle, Mapi León and Salma Paralluelo, players who have left this summer and who had high salaries within the squad.
However, the fair play of the men's team conditions the entire club. “If Barça only had men's and women's professional football, the women's team could surely be loss-making and afford higher salaries, just as it has happened with basketball, handball, futsal, and roller hockey, which are successful sections, but represent a loss for the club. Barça has not allowed the women's team to be loss-making,” describes Elvira, who warns that, by having profits, agents may demand more money in future negotiations.
A sustainable model that will continue to be so as long as there is no temptation to make big signings with large salaries, as the economist explains. “Commercialization seems to be growing more and more. Girls want the players' jerseys, and the women's football fan who always used to buy the men's jersey now wants the women's one,” indicates the doctor of economics.
England and the United States, the big markets
Despite the good figures, Barça still cannot compete economically with the big leagues, especially with England and the United States. The difference between both competitions and Spain is evident from the start. The collective bargaining agreement in force in Liga F –extended after expiring on June 30, 2026– established a minimum interprofessional salary of €23,500 gross per season. "It's like accepting the salary of a person who just finished a master's degree and is going into their first job. The best ones earn that."
In England, on the other hand, the Women’s Super League (WSL) raised the annual minimum wage to 42,500 British pounds (around €50,000), more than double that of Spain. This figure, however, is for those players over 23 years of age competing in the First Division, as reported by The Guardian, which also added that Second Division footballers will have a salary higher than the minimum established in the United Kingdom, a fact that makes them professionals (more than €31,000). In Spain, only the Liga F is considered professional.
In the United States, the minimum wage is set at 50,500 dollars (about €43,500) per year, although there is a desire to increase it to 82,500 dollars (just over €71,000) by 2030. Despite this, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) has a strict salary cap of around three million euros for the entire squad. A figure, however, that can be exceeded thanks to a new regulation for high-impact players (High Impact Player Rule), which allows North American clubs to spend an additional one million dollars to attract or retain the most prominent footballers.
The difference in the figures is also thanks to the wave of investment in the United States or England. The Athletic reported that the NWSL will include a new franchise, the seventeenth, after selling it to businessman Arthur Blank –owner of the Atlanta Falcons of the NFL and the Atlanta United of the MLS– for 165 million dollars (about 142 million euros). In Spain, Mercury 13, owner of Badalona Women, is the only investor present in the Liga F.