Barcelona frees up significant wage space after Araujo loan, more could follow

According to Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona has once again freed up a large amount of salary space after loaning Araujo to Liverpool.

Barcelona officially announced on Monday evening that they have loaned Araujo to Liverpool for one season with an option to buy. Liverpool will cover his full salary at Barcelona. Reportedly, through this loan, Barcelona can free up Araujo's entire salary. He is one of the high-earning players in the Barcelona squad, and Barcelona is able to do this because the club is already within the 1-1 rule.

Previously, without such an ideal financial fair play environment, clubs could only free up and account for 60% of the total salary of a transferred player. If a player's salary accounted for 5% of the total team salary, he would be considered a so-called marquee player, and the freed-up proportion would increase to 70%. Now, Barcelona can free up 100%.

This shrewd move is part of a series of actions by Barcelona throughout the summer. It began with Lewandowski; after his contract expired, Barcelona freed up his entire salary, which was one of the most significant wage expenditures in the squad. Subsequently, Barcelona's sale of Ansu Fati also freed up a large amount of space. According to salary data compiled by various major data websites, his remaining two seasons' total will exceed 8 million euros.

In addition, there was Rashford's loan ending, Ajax covering 10% of Ter Stegen's salary, and Cancelo's salary for the second half of last season. As for the latter, Barcelona is still awaiting results to see if he will return. Furthermore, Christensen's new contract is also on the list, although his salary is only about half of his original.

In terms of sales, the 1-1 rule allows Barcelona to use 100% of player transfer income for the salary cap. Previously, due to not being under financial fair play conditions, the club could only use 20% of the transfer fee; for marquee players, this proportion was 35%. Currently, Barcelona has generated nearly 20 million euros in income through the transfers of Biel Hili, Ipeña, and Ansu Fati.

Amidst this active operation, Barcelona is currently also considering two potential departures: Casado and Ferran Torres. Both operations would allow the club to gain 100% benefit in terms of financial fair play, whether from transfer fees or freed-up salary space.

Barcelona can even use La Liga's rules for long-term injuries to allocate a portion of Frenkie de Jong's salary to new signings. The Dutch midfielder is one of the highest-paid players in the squad. If the club and player reach an agreement and the injury layoff reaches four months, 50% of his salary can be used; if it exceeds five months, this proportion can increase to 80%.

Regarding new signings, Barcelona spent approximately 100 million euros on Gordon and Adeyemi; Rodri's deal is not yet fully finalized. Barcelona must account for the salaries of these two players in the squad's wage costs, but this portion is still far below the space that has been freed up. In this context, according to data provided by La Liga in February this year, Barcelona's squad salary cap for this season is 432 million euros, an increase of 81 million euros compared to the data from last September.

Only Real Madrid, with 761 million euros, surpasses Barcelona. Additionally, with the new Camp Nou stadium nearing completion, Barcelona expects to generate approximately 70 million euros from VIP box revenue this season, a figure that has been approved by auditors. Finally, the club also hopes to secure an additional 210 million euros through television rights debt issuance, to be received in two installments: the first in July this year and the second in November.

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