Barcelona's salary cap limit slashed to £85m

Barcelona's financial woes continue as they have been handed an £85m salary cap by LaLiga for the 2021-22 season - a seventh of Real Madrid's £638m allocation.

LaLiga announced the salary cap for every club in the league, and the Catalan giants have been a wage bill lower than that of newly-promoted Premier League side, Watford.

Barcelona spent a major chunk of their summer transfer window, trying to get rid of players, and reducing their hefty wage bill. Antoine Greizmann and Emerson Royal were among those to be sold, and Ronald Koeman's side failed to offer Lionel Messi a new deal, resulting in him joining Paris-Saint Germain on a free transfer.

Barcelona's £85m cap is a major drop from the £580m they had during the 2018-19 season. That number was further reduced to £331m, a fall of £249m.

Real Madrid, meanwhile, have the highest salary limit in LaLiga, following multiple player sales during the transfer window.

"They acknowledge much higher losses than what they had initially estimated, so the impact is greater on their spending limit," La Liga corporate director Jose Guerra said on Wednesday. "If you take the €97m limit and add the losses, around €480m, we're talking about €570m, which would be more normal. So it's more or less stable."

He added: "I think there were solutions that could have kept Messi at the club, it was the club's management that decided to use their resources differently. I don't think it was just a question of their finances."

2021/22 salary caps for LaLiga clubs

Real Madrid - £638m

Sevilla - £173m

Atletico Madrid - £148m

Villarreal - £138m

Real Sociedad - £110m

Athletic Bilbao - £97m

Barcelona - £85m

Espanyol - £67m

Real Betis - £61m

Celta Vigo - £57m

Getafe - £56

Osasuno - £49m

Granada - £46m

Real Mallorca - £40m

Cadiz - £39m

Alaves - £37m

Rayo Vallecano - £36m

Elche - £36m

Levante - £28m

Valencia - £26m