Barcelona have seen their annual spending limit cut from €270m to €204m by La Liga following the close of the January transfer window.
It’s another challenge for the Catalan giants and follows a similar move in the summer when their salary cap dropped to €270m from €648m.
The reduction has come because of a number of reasons. Barca have lost revenue from moving to Montjuic, while renovation work is carried out on Camp Nou, and are also still waiting on a payment from Libero for the sale of Barca Studios.
Barcelona were fairly quiet in the January window, only bringing in Vitor Roque from Athletico Paranaense after losing Gavi to a season-ending injury.
The summer looks like it could be a similarly quiet affair with Barcelona’s finances once again likely to make things difficult regarding signings unless players are sold.
Indeed Deco has already said Barcelona’s next coach will have to cope without any big-money buys when he takes over from Xavi at the end of the season.
Elsewhere in La Liga, Real Madrid have the biggest cap in the league €727m (£623m) with Atletico Madrid second at €303m (£259m) and Barca third. Sevilla on €155m and Real Sociedad on €144m complete the top five.
Los Blancos are expected to be busy this summer by finally bringing in Kylian Mbappe from PSG.