Barcelona starts the season unrivaled and with a 20x larger budget

Barcelona has no rival in the league: a stroll with €1,195 million

Can a league be decided in September? A large part of the fanbase says yes, and not just the supporters of Barça. Barcelona has started the 2026-27 season at a pace that, in the opinion of most, leaves the title almost decided before Christmas. The underlying question is not whether the team plays well. It is whether anyone can compete against it.

The budget gap: €1,195 million versus €60

The FC Barcelona manages an operating income budget of €1,195 million for the 2026-27 season. Real Racing Club has close to €60 million. A factor of almost 20 to 1. When the resource difference is of that order, competition stops being measured on the pitch and starts being measured in the boardroom.

This leads to the most repeated proposals: legally limiting the economic differences between clubs and applying a heavy tax on the wealthiest to finance transfers for the modest ones. It sounds reasonable until you remember that Barcelona and Madrid are precisely what the league sells to the world.

There is a nuance that Barça's own supporters point out: the team fields seven, eight, or nine Spanish players per match, many of them youth products, with a risky system. The sporting merit exists. The problem is that merit alone cannot explain an entire league.

Is it only a Spanish league problem?

No. Bayern Munich has won twelve of the last thirteen Bundesligas, with only one exception from Leverkusen. Juventus strung together nine consecutive Serie A titles. In France, PSG reigns supreme, and in Portugal, the championship is shared by three clubs. Only the Premier League escapes this diagnosis, yet even there, there is discussion about whether its level has dropped.

The counterargument is that the Spanish case is not new: the title has gone uncrowned by Barcelona or Madrid for a decade, except for some years of Atlético. Some compare it directly to the Scottish league, where two teams have shared everything for decades. The practical consequence is the same: fans begin to watch the Cup and Champions League, knockout competitions, before the regular league.

The business of Barça-Madrid and the rest as supporting cast

This is where the analysis becomes uncomfortable. The league lives off the classic rivalry: it is what is seen around the world and what generates revenue. The rest of the teams function as a necessary supporting cast, without an audience outside their city.

Any reform that reduces this gap clashes with the business model supporting the championship, and that is why proposals for distribution always fall short.

The discussion about the European Super League falls into this same vein. For some, it would break the ecosystem and hand football over to American and Arabian funds. For others, UEFA loses ground if the pie is shared outside its control. The only thing clear is that no one discusses the cause: too much money concentrated in too few hands.