Barcelona: Joan Laporta ‘imposes a strict cap of £8.3m annually on new signings from June 30’

Joan Laporta has implemented a new salary cap for new signings at Barcelona, according to reports, as he looks to avoid a repeat of the club’s financial chaos.

The off-field woe at the Nou Camp has seen them slash the wages of a number of their first-team players, as well as struggle to register their recent arrivals. 

As a result, their overall transfer policy also changed – with the new board targeting free agents and stop-gap loan deals in order to keep their costs down. 

However, there are now signs of green shoots of recovery, after the club splashed out £55million on Ferran Torres and declared they are back as big market players.

Alongside this, Laporta has come up with a blueprint to keep control over spending. 

Sport have claimed that the president will impose a €10m (£8.3m) cap on the annual salary of any new player joining the Catalan giants after June 30 this year.

This strict policy, it is said, has ‘no exceptions’ – meaning that any negotiations with prospective additions will remain firmly focused around this new figure.

Gerard Pique was one of the players who took a pay cut to help ease the club’s financial woes

Erling Haaland is a target for the summer, but Barcelona may now be forced to admit defeat

There may be some wiggle room, though, with the same report adding that big players may be compensated with an array of bonuses to tempt them to join. 

After Laporta arrived last year, the board commissioned a damning report which found that the club were in a state of ‘technical bankruptcy’.

This situation was triggered by unsustainable, high wages and the drastic loss of revenue arising from the coronavirus pandemic. 

Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland is a target ahead of the summer window, but Barcelona may now be forced to admit defeat as a result of their strict cap.