Barcelona's total wage bill is €391m, 83% of club's expenditure

With the shadow of an ERTE (a temporary workforce adjustment plan) hanging over the club, and the flat refusal by the team's four captains for the first team squad to accept a 70% pay cut for the duration of the coronavirus crisis, maybe now is as good a time as any to take an in-depth look at the pay structure at Barça as outlined in the last Delegate Members Assembly.

Barcelona's annual wage bill broken down

The first team squad earn a combined total of 391,681 million euros in salaries - 83% of the 469,666 million the club lays out in personal expenditure. Other outgoings are as follows: youth team players combined wage bill - 28.025 million euros; the basketball team wage bill - 32.27 million; handball team wage bill - 6.170 million; the roller hockey team take 1.762 million and the futsal team, 4.190 million. The wage bill in other, non-professional areas comes to just 1.219 million and then there are a further 4.342 million euros which go towards paying staff in other areas of the club.

The budget which Barça put on the table in the last Delegate Members Assembly was for a total of 1,007 million euros in outgoings for the 2019-20 season; 507 million euros of that figure was destined to pay the salaries of playing staff, 135 million to pay off outstanding debts; 56 million covered salaries of non-sports-related members of staff and another substantial slice of the pie - 254 million euros was for management expenses.

It also must be pointed out that Barça estimated projected income of 108.094 million euros through earnings from their participation in professional competitions; 262.004 million come in from television broadcasting rights for the first team's games; 255.350 million euros are raised from commercialisation and publicity from the first team and lastly, 42.884 million euros are earned from renewing season tickets and club members' subscription fees. So in total, the first team squad generates 668.332 million euros in revenue from the 875.50 total - or 76 per cent. So if the players take a 83% cut for their pay packets, it actually doesn't look too unreasonable. Especially when you compare the 668 million euros which the football first team squad makes to the income generated by the basketball team (9.177 million); the handball team (1.168 million); and the futsal team (0.7%) and roller hockey team (0.3%).