As Barcelona May Extend Wage Drop, Here's How Much Pay Cut Messi And Co Will Face Next Season: Report

Lionel Messi and others could face a 30% pay cut as La Liga giants FC Barcelona and Real Madrid reportedly are planning to extend the wage drop to next season.

While Real players agreed to 10-20% pay cut since March amid the financial impact on the club due to the coronavirus outbreak, Messi and the other first-team Barcelona players accepted a 70% salary cut to help out the club in these crisis times.

It is understood that now Barcelona and Real Madrid are negotiating with the European Club Association over more salary cut and both the squads have been prepared to accept lesser pays for another year.

Messi alone is paid $613K per week as Barcelona had started the season with Spanish soccer’s top wage bill of $716 million. According to a report by The Sun, if the Catalans went ahead with the salary slashing for another year, they would manage to save around $249 million.

La Liga is looking to restart by mid-June behind closed doors and it is understood that they would continue to play without fans until next year. The report further stated that in order to reduce the emotional effect of having no fans in the stands, both Real and Barca have decided to switch from their huge stadiums to 6,000-capacity venues.

Real, who are currently placed second in the La Liga table, could be playing at Alfredo Di Stefano stadium and not at their home ground of Santiago Bernabeu. Meanwhile, reigning champions Barcelona are considering playing at the Johan Cruyff Stadium instead of the Nou Camp.

It was earlier reported that Spanish clubs get most of their revenue from advertising around the ground. This means the La Liga clubs will be affected the most from matches taking place behind closed doors.

While La Liga and Premier League are still pondering over a restart date, Germany has announced their league, Bundesliga will resume from May 16.