Spanish clubs have ‘new rules’ to sign in summer

Spanish clubs have new rules when it comes to signing and setting their salary limit. The Delegate Commission has approved a series of modifications in its regulations for economic control with the aim of giving oxygen to the teams and being able to face more transfers to reinforce their squads this summer.

One of the changes is in the famous article 100. The one that dictates the only way by which a team can register new players when it exceeds its salary limit (what it spends on players is greater than the cap that is transferred from the employer). He became famous for the situation in Barcelona and that of another ten teams, which last summer were forced to resort to this rule. The 1/4 rule: only one euro out of four savings can be spent on registering a new player if you find yourself in this excess situation. Temporarily, due to COVID, a concession was allowed that would allow clubs to save more and be able to continue strengthening themselves sportingly: Until last winter market, if the sale of the player was that of a footballer who occupied 5% or more of the total salary limit, 50% of the savings were allowed to be spent. That is to say, for every two euros, LaLiga allowed one to be spent.

Now, this rule has expired in its validity. As there are still many clubs in this delicate situation, the Delegate Commission has approved another transitory measure, but less permissive than the previous one. Now, for those players who leave and account for 5% of a team’s total salary cap, teams will be able to allocate 33% to sign up players. In other words, one euro out of every three saved can be spentyes A more permissive measure than the 1/4. Of course, the 33% measure will only be in force for the summer market, as of September 1 it will disappear and only the original 25% will last.

In addition to this new measure, LaLiga has approved another rule in order to cushion the effect of the losses derived from COVID (ticket offices, subscriptions, sponsorships and now also capital gains from transfers) in five years. What directly affects the salary limit. Namely, The impact of the pandemic will be redistributed in the club accounts as follows: 15% of the losses will be assumed in the accounts for the 22-23 season; 20% in 23-24 and 24-25; and 22.5% in 25-26 and 26-27. Translated into numbers, if a team had losses of 50 million due to COVID, this season it would only have to assume 15%: 7.5 million euros. What affects less negatively when making the salary cap.

Let’s take an example to obtain the salary limit. The equation says that income (let’s say 300 million euros) must be subtracted from non-sports expenses (€150 million) and losses from previous years. Let’s say the losses are 100 and half are due to COVID. So, to calculate the salary limit for this season, only €50M and 15% of the other €50 million (7.5) that are considered to be derived from COVID are subtracted from income. Which leaves the following equation: 300-150-50-7.5. Which would leave this club with a salary limit of around 92.5 million. IF said new normal had not been applied and they had to assume all the debt, the limit would have been established at 50 million.