Barcelona centre-back Gerard Pique had posted the details of his wages that he received from the club amidst the salary leak controversy. It was revealed by Spanish journalist Lluis Canut that he had access to the details of Barcelona players’ salaries and some of the senior players in the squad like Pique, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba were receiving higher amounts than they did before.
To respond to these allegations directly, Pique had posted a payment acknowledgement slip on his Twitter and said that he had received half his salary, as he was promised by the club. The club also confirmed the same about these leaks, terming them as fake news.
Pique, alongside a host of other players, including other seniors like Busquets, Alba, Ter Stegen, had agreed to take a wage cut after the club found themselves lagging well behind with respect to the newly set wage cap.
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This entire saga wreaked havoc on the internet, as the fans are already waiting for their new acquisition Ferran Torres to get registered almost 10 days after completing his signing from Manchester City.
The club have to let go of some other players in the side to ensure their new signing can be registered. On January 7, Philippe Coutinho has been loaned to Aston Villa as a part of this process, and several other players in the club are linked with a move away from the club.
According to the new rule, no club should spend more than 70% of their earnings on wages. As it stands, the Catalans are spending way more than they should be. Although they have promised the La Liga board that they’ll cut down the salaries over the next two years to get in accordance with the current standards, it looks increasingly difficult with their new acquisitions.
For this season, La Liga has granted them a wage limit of 97 million euros, but they currently find themselves well above the 300-million mark. This prompted massive wage cuts across the club, especially among players who were earning in excess of 10 million per annum. The wage cap restriction led to the club losing Lionel Messi, whose wages were beyond the club’s reach.