Barcelona's salary cap limit is boosted by £694 MILLION to £569m by LaLiga

Barcelona's ability to bring in a host of big name signings this summer has been brokered by a huge hike in their wages allowance from La Liga.

Following the January transfer window, Barca were the only team in the Spanish top-flight to have a negative salary cap at minus €144million (£125m) - essentially urging them to slash their wage bill.

But the Catalan giants have been given leeway this season to spend an incredible €656m (£569m) - a hike of £694m.

That money has been used to bring in big names including Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski, Franck Kessie, Marcus Alonso, Hector Bellerin and Jules Kounde.

The club have had to be clever in managing those wages, and had to wait to register French defender Kounde for players to move on and reschedule contract bonuses in other contracts.

LaLiga's salary cap table was revealed on Friday and only shows Real Madrid above Barcelona, with Caro Ancelotti's men having a figure of €683 (£592m) - £46m down on last season's figure.

The Champions League holders had a modest summer by their standards, with their only major signings coming in Aurelien Tchouameni from Monaco for £72m and the free transfer of Antonio Rudiger, who left Chelsea at the end of last season.

Atletico Madrid are now third in the salary cap table behind the El Clasico rivals, having been given their own rise in salary cap to €341m (£295m) and leapfrogging Sevilla - whose allowance has remained almost the same.

At the other end of the scale, Elche and newly-promoted Girona have the lowest salary cap in LaLiga with an allowance of €43m (£37m) on wages.

LaLiga first brought in a salary cap in 2013, with the belief that the league needed to protect the long-term financial health of its clubs.

It was believed that too many clubs - examples that have been cited by the league bosses include Deportivo La Coruna and Racing Santander - between the first and second divisions were putting themselves at risk with limited protections across their finances.

The salary cap works on the understanding that each club is given a different cap depending on the revenue and spending that occurred during the previous season.

The model is popular in American sports leagues such as the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) but is less common across Europe's major leagues.

Major clubs such as Real Madrid and Barcelona have typically been able to spend significantly more than smaller clubs because they generate more money.