Leo messi It has practically left the Spanish Football League an orphan. His unexpected departure from FC Barcelona It has left fans of the Catalans and football lovers in general devastated, as it means the departure of the last great star of national football. And not just any one, but THE STAR.
Messi has left for economic reasons, given the impossibility of Barça to pay him what he asked – although this has not been entirely clear because the club has given one version and Messi another …- without breaching the financial fair play of the League and, basically, without falling into absolute ruin in the face of accounts that have already been heavily touched.
But the march of the Argentine It is only the culmination of a rout of international talent from the Spanish League which has a huge economic background. Almost all have had to see each other’s faces with the Treasury due to tax evasion, since the national system, after the Beckham Law was repealed, has made soccer players have to pay taxes at the maximum rate, which is making many prefer to play in countries with tax systems more attractive to their interests .
Salary limit and personal income tax: the fatal combination
It all started with Cristiano Ronaldo a few years ago. The refusal of Real Madrid to pay its fine from the Treasury, of 14.7 million euros, and paying him the same salary that Messi had at that time made him decide to pack his bags for Italy, dwhere Juventus offered him 30 million (Madrid, 23).
Something similar has happened with Sergio Ramos, which this summer was heading to Paris, where PSG also paid him the salary that Florentino Pérez denied him. And the last one has been Messi, the big surprise, to which the French team will pay about 35 million, the same that Barça was supposed to give him until everything was blown up.
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Why? Because that new contract exceeded, according to Laporta, the salary limit set by the League for Barcelona this year. This salary limit was established a few years ago when Spanish clubs had a large debt with the Tax Agency. The objective was to reduce it and not to spend without restraint while they owed money to the treasury.
This limit is calculated with the expected income estimated by the competition for each club that year and deducts the structural costs and the payment of its debt. In the case of Barcelona, these expected revenues have been declining in recent years until the downturn caused by the pandemic, while its debt grew. Therefore, renewing Messi on the terms he wanted was impossible. Even if the salary was lowered by half, according to him.
But this is not all. Spanish taxation is causing the League to lose competitiveness by leaps and bounds. As we can see, the clubs barely make big signings anymore, a containment that in greats like Real Madrid and Barcelona surprises and for the worse, since this makes them lose attractiveness in the eyes of the international public.
While PSG accumulates the big stars – those who sell more jerseys and attract more people to the stadiums – Spanish clubs compete with players with a lower profile, while remaining top-notch. And it is that in Spain taxation ‘penalizes’ – very in quotes – these players who earn millions a year.
Because they must pay at the maximum rate of personal income tax, which is 47%, for incomes over 300,000 euros from this year. The so-called Beckham Law, launched when the English arrived in Madrid with the aim of attracting international talent, not only in football, allowed them to pay 24%, but that law was repealed for footballers.
For example, in France Messi will be able to benefit from the regime of imparted, for which 30% of your salary is exempt from tax. And such regimes have most European countries to attract talent. Not in Spain for football.
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It is true that footballers they negotiate their contracts netTherefore, the clubs are responsible for paying the Treasury, the problem is that they are no longer willing to assume these amounts, because it means adding half the salary to the cost established by the contract. Something that, again, supposes them to exceed that salary limit of the League.
Therefore, the situation is complicated for the Spanish competition. The pandemic, in addition, has given the finishing touch to the teams, which have received much less income as the League has been stopped for a while and the impossibility of having an audience in the stadiums afterwards. The general crisis also means that its official merchandising, which is quite expensive, by the way, is no longer sold so much, also motivated by the lower arrival of international tourists to our country, who are the ones who buy the most T-shirts. Also, their idols no longer play in our League.
Therefore, Spanish football is at a crossroads. On the one hand, it is essential that the clubs are financially healthy and that the footballers receive their salaries properly, as well as the rest of the club’s employees and the entire system. That the debts are paid and that large amounts are not owed to the Treasury.
But that is making you less attractive, because to have great stars it is essential to spend a lot of money. And that seems not to be solved by the millions that the CVC fund is going to put into the League, an agreement that by the way the big clubs reject and the Football Federation calls it illegal.
What is clear is that the League needs money to compete with England, Italy or France, where the great stars who have emigrated from Spanish football now play in search of more succulent salaries.
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