La Liga gives Barcelona fantastic news for the new season

La Liga has announced a series of changes to its salary cap rules, which dictate how much clubs can spend on their squads and what player contracts they can sign for the season. Their latest changes once again favour more spending by Spanish clubs.

As is the case for this season, clubs that are over their salary cap can now spend 60 percent of what they save (70 percent for a player with a salary above 5 percent of the wage bill, an exclusive player) or 20 percent of what they bring in from player departures (30 percent for "exclusive players"), but there are now also a number of exceptions to the rule.

One of the main changes is that La Liga teams will now be able to sign players under the age of 24, who have been at the club for three consecutive seasons, to a new deal and register them, giving them until the end of the season to find the money in their salary cap to do so. If they fail to make up the difference, that money will be deducted from the salary cap for the following season.

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This means encouraging clubs to protect their academy talent and give them new deals. In addition, women's football will be allowed further flexibility, with up to €2m or 2 per cent of total revenue allowed to be allocated to a women's team without being deducted from their salary cap. In addition, La Liga has adopted a UEFA rule that dictates that players' contracts can only be amortised over a maximum of five years, and four for clubs that are above their salary cap.

The same clubs above their cap will be allowed to register a maximum of three players though, one via transfer, two on a free transfer, with their impact on the salary cap only for a single season, again easing spending restrictions. Clubs will then have until the end of the year to find the money to register the rest of their contracts.

Perhaps the biggest change is the introduction of a minimum wage cap. Clubs in La Liga will have a minimum wage cap of 30 percent of their turnover, and in La Liga 2, 40 percent of their turnover, to ensure clubs remain competitive. However, if a club consistently exceeds that minimum limit year after year, executive director Javier Gomez has pointed out that they will be relegated.

La Liga have published the updated salary limits after the January transfer window. pic.twitter.com/I7XkBq0deT

- Football España (@footballespana_) February 18, 2025

This will be good news for Espanyol and Sevilla, who have salary caps of €7.8m and €0.7m respectively. Another major beneficiary of this rule is likely to be Barcelona.

They are facing handing over a huge new contract to Lamine Yamal this summer when he turns 18, and the new Under-24 rule will give them a season back at Camp Nou to boost their income enough to sign his deal.Telegraph/