Barcelona will free up €8.4 million in salary space from veteran defender’s imminent exit | OneFootball

The news of Inigo Martinez’ departure came as a surprise no one expected and the player’s move to Al Nassr has reached a stage close to completion overnight.

Barcelona always contemplated the sale of a centre-back this summer, given the overbooking in the department.

However, it was always one of Ronald Araujo or Andreas Christensen who was speculated to leave to create space on the FFP front.

The unexpected departure of Martinez means that the club have achieved the same objective of creating space on the FFP and wage bill front, although the amount is not the complete €14 million that the defender earned at the club.

A part of the corpus

Martinez’s departure as a free agent means that Barcelona will receive no transfer fee from the operation, but there is not much Joan Laporta and Co. could do on that front, given that it was a pre-agreed clause in his contract.

Inigo Martinez is set to leave Barcelona. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

The €14 million being lifted off the wage bill, thus, is the only financial relief Barcelona can count on from the operation.

As relayed by Mundo Deportivo, however, the entire sum will not reflect on the team’s FFP roster.

Since the player was not registered under the 1:1 rule given the club’s situation, only 60% of Martinez’s salary will be freed up on Barcelona’s FFP margin.

That sum works out to €8.4 million and is all Barcelona can formally count on in their calculations.

So far, the departures of Pau Victor, Pablo Torre, Ansu Fati and Clement Lenglet together have helped Barcelona clear significant space on the FFP front, and Martinez’s departure now takes the sum to €30 million in total.

Combining that with the €10 million received in a recent sponsorship agreement, the total FFP room increases to €40 million, which the club will use to register new signings.