On Thursday, Spanish football giant FC Barcelona dropped a bombshell. It was a heart-breaking message that started with a simple sentence: “Latest news: Leo Messi will not continue with FC Barcelona.” Coming from FC Barcelona’s social media pages, the news has thrown the world of football into disarray as it marks the end of an era.
Lionel Messi, who had agreed to a new contract with Barcelona, was expected to sign on Thursday, putting to permanent rest, all the intrigues that it has birthed since last year. Alas, the club and the player have to part ways when they thought they have it all sorted.
“Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today [Thursday], this cannot happen because of Spanish LaLiga regulations on player registration.
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“As a result of this situation, Messi shall not be staying on at FC Barcelona. Both parties deeply regret that the wishes of the player and the club will ultimately not be fulfilled,” Barcelona said in a statement on Thursday.
In June last year, Messi, out of frustration, had sent a burofax to the then Barca president, Josep Bartomeu, demanding to leave the club. His contract with the club was supposedly expired, making him a free agent, if only Barcelona would see it that way. But the club said he had a €700 million buyout clause, which must be paid before he is allowed to leave. That was the turning point of Messi’s desire to leave the club, and to cap it, La Liga supported Barcelona’s claim. With no club ready to dish out that money, Messi had to stay one more year in Barcelona to see off his contract.
However, following the avalanche of controversy Messi’s burofax generated in and outside the club, Bartomeu was forced to resign and Barcelona conducted an election that ushered in the current president, Joan Laporta. But it didn’t solve the problem. The club had yet to convince its greatest asset to stay, and time was running out.
Messi’s contract eventually expired on June 30, 2021, making him a free agent and creating the problem that would later shatter dreams, hopes and joys. Barcelona’s inability to get Messi to renew his contract before its expiration means he has to be re-signed as a new player, and register with LaLiga as a new signing – and that’s where the whole challenge hangs.
As a new signing, Messi’s salary has to be restructured to fit into La Liga’s financial framework as part of the league’s efforts to uphold financial fair play. Barcelona’s wage bill is the highest in Europe, and with the pandemic compounding clubs’ financial challenges, La Liga is sticking to strict financial rules that will ensure the clubs stay in shape financially. Under the rules, the club could not register a new player until some of their wage bill had been cleared.
La Liga’s President, Javier Tebas had warned Barcelona that the rules would apply to Messi, and the club will need to make tough decisions, including cutting its wage bill, by letting some players go, if it would re-sign the Argentine. However, everyone thought there would be a way around it, after all, Messi is the biggest footballer in the world and Barcelona is not a team to be ignored.
Barcelona’s eventual inability to beat the fair play bottleneck has become the most stunning news in the world of football since Messi’s burofax last year. The 34-year old was on vacation in Ibiza, after leading Argentina to Copa America glory. He arrived in Spain on Thursday to pen the rest of his future to the club which has given him everything. Messi had agreed a 50% wage cut in his new contract that would have seen him remain in Barcelona for the next five years. Unfortunately, his dream to end his career in his childhood club was ended by the decisions of others.
Caught between keeping the league’s biggest player and upholding its financial regulations, La Liga had agreed to sell 10% stake to CVC Capital Partners for €3 billion that will be shared to clubs to help them deal with the financial crisis. But it’s not enough, and the league is not going to compromise its financial rules since it will set a bad precedent and thus undermine the efforts to restructure the league’s finances.
Barcelona said La Liga did not carry the clubs along in the 50-year CVC Capital Partners deal, and the terms of the contract condemned the club’s future with regard to broadcasting rights.
“FC Barcelona considers that the operation that has been announced has not been sufficiently discussed with the clubs (the owners of TV rights), that the amount is not congruent with the years of duration, and the deal affects part of all clubs’ audiovisual rights for the next 50 years.
“FC Barcelona wishes to express its surprise at an agreement driven by La Liga in which the teams’ opinions, including those of FC Barcelona, have not been taken into account. There has not even been a presentation of options offered by other competitors in order to evaluate the pros and cons in a post-pandemic situation in which there are still many questions left unanswered,” the club said in a statement on Thursday.
Messi arrived at Barcelona at the tender age of 13, and grew with the club winning many titles. His prodigy was a spectacle that kept both Barca and La Liga on the side of lucrative commercial deals. Many Believe that Messi is a victim of behind the scene politics between Barcelona and La Liga, which has to do with the canceled Super League and the newly announced CVC Capital Partners deal.
There is little chance that La Liga will bend the rules based on the above concerns raised by Barcelona, but it is clear that Messi’s departure will bring great misfortune to both La Liga and Barcelona.