Liga have ordered Barcelona to reduce their wage bill by £28million, SportsMail reports.

Last November, the Catalan club was hit with a sizeable deduction, when it dropped by around £250million in the wake of the financial pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

LaLiga president, Javier Tebas, claimed at the time that salary cuts were necessary to bring down the “excessive spending”, as supporters are still unable to attend matches.

But LaLiga have now ordered Barcelona to reduce their spending on wages even further.

They have been asked to bring their budget down from €380m (£328m) to €347m (£300m), a reduction of nine per cent.

The Catalan giants are in debt of over €1bn (£864m) and player wages accounted for around 61% of the club’s £940m income before the pandemic.

With no sign of fans returning to stadiums in Spain any time soon, income sources have dried up and now they have been ordered by LaLiga to reduce the wage bill even further.

Captain Lionel Messi is the current highest earner at the club and he pockets around £500,000 per week (£26m per year) while Antoine Griezmann takes in around £249,000-a-week (£15.3m).

Barcelona players agreed to a 70 per cent wage cut back in March 2020 and something similar might be needed again.

DailyPost