The article is written by Ansruta Debnath, a law student of National Law University Odisha. This article is on the sudden exit of Lionel Messi from Barcelona and details as to why the contract between the two could not be signed.

This article has been published by Sneha Mahawar.

Introduction

The name, Messi, has been a common household name for decades all over the world. This Argentinian professional football player, who also captains the national team for Argentina has been sometimes known to be the best player in the world for his unparalleled skills. In fact, he is also considered one of the greatest footballers of all time.

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But Messi and Argentina are not the only two terms that go hand in hand. In the world of professional football clubs and leagues, Messi has been intrinsically linked with the Spanish, Catalan club, FC Barcelona, having been part of that club for almost two decades. However, in one of the most shocking events of 2021, especially for professional club football fans, Messi and Barcelona parted ways with the latter because they were unable to afford Messi. This article gives you the reason for the sudden termination of the long-standing relationship between Lionel Messi and Barcelona.

Messi and Barcelona

Football giant Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona had a relationship that spanned for almost 20 years. Messi signed his very first contract on a napkin with this club in the year 2000 at the young age of 13 as he entered the Barcelona Academy. Since then, he made his senior debut in 2003 and consequently played 778 games for the Catalan club, collecting or scoring almost a whopping 672 goals. He went on to win 35 trophies for Barcelona and six Ballon D’Ors while in the club, trophies that commemorate only the best football players in the world. 

As Messi stated in the final press conference he did on behalf of Barcelona, this club had been family to him and he attributed almost all his professional growth and success to it. Thus leaving Barcelona was neither easy for him, nor was it easy for his fans. Messi completely broke down in the press conference while announcing the heart-breaking news and subsequently received a standing ovation.

Why did Messi leave Barcelona for PSG

Lionel Messi’s exit from Barcelona came as a shock to all. Certain reports claimed that Messi’s contract with Barcelona fell through because he was asking for a 30 per cent increase in his salary. But in the emotional press conference that Messi held for announcing his departure from Barcelona, he categorically stated that those reports were false and that in fact, he had offered to reduce his salary by almost 50 per cent. The reason why Messi could not remain in Barcelona was because of the financial and organizational woes of the club, the La Liga rules and Spanish law, all of which have been discussed in depth below.

La Liga Financial Fair Play Rules

The Financial Fair Play Rules and Regulations were established in 2009 to prevent professional European football clubs from overspending from their budget. Overspending was expected to happen if the club was caught up with the need for success and overestimated its capabilities. This is what Barcelona fell victim to. Barcelona had been facing extreme financial losses for a long time, which got particularly exacerbated by the pandemic and subsequent lockdown which drastically affected its turnover rates. 

As per the La Liga Financial Fair Play rules or the La Liga Economic Control (established in 2013 in consonance with the UEFA rules), Barcelona’s wage-to-turnover percentage has to be 70 per cent. That is, all teams are subject to a variable salary cap, which limits player salaries and acquisition expenditures to 70% of club earnings. For Barcelona, its losses amounted to 578 million dollars with the club being in debt for upwards of 1.39 billion dollars. Consequently, numbers showed that the wage to the turnover percentage for Barcelona was coming at around 105-110%, which was a gross violation of the rules. Thus, La Liga could not have allowed the contract to be signed. 

Messi could not have played for Barcelona even for free. Without signing him on, the wage to the turnover percentage for Barcelona would have been 95 per cent which was still much more over limit anyways. To sign on Messi, Barcelona had to shed at least 200 million dollars in salaries only, something which became very difficult to do because of the low and limited player transfer activity all across Europe. 

It is important to note that Messi is one of the reasons behind Barcelona’s current predicament. His previous contract was for 555 million euros (652 million dollars) over four years, the most of any athlete, and included 115 million euros (135 million dollars) merely for signing the contract and 78 million euros (91 million dollars) as a “loyalty bonus.”

By extension, other players were highly compensated in order to maintain some semblance of parity within the team. Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba, Samuel Umtiti, Sergio Busquets, Miralem Pjanic, Philippe Coutinho, Sergi Roberto, Frenkie de Jong, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, and Francisco Trincao all have contracts for more than €100,000 a week. Barcelona’s payroll cost for 2019-20 was 671 million euros (786 million dollars) at its peak.

Spanish Contract Law 

However, there is another reason why Messi could not have played at a reduced salary or even, hypothetically, for free. According to Spain’s contract law, any new contract must involve at least 50 percent of the wage as given in the previous contract. This rule was done to avoid any kind of financial manipulation from the salary-giver. Thus, Messi could not have played for free for Barcelona anyways. He could have played for a 50 per cent cut in salary but it wasn’t a viable option for the club itself. 

Speculations

After breaking away from Barcelona, Messi joined Paris Saint-Germain FC. As is accompanied by all major events, even this was not free of speculations and controversies. On the forefront, it has been speculated that Barcelona leadership already knew they would not be able to sign Messi for a long time. This entire series of events was apparently an attempt to liberalize La Liga Financial Rules. Recently, there have been rumours that Messi might return back to Barcelona. This would cement the fact that all this was indeed an elaborate football strategy.     

Some media houses have speculated that the false hope (of Messi joining Barcelona) created weeks before the shocking announcement was a PR strategy to help club management navigate the fan backlash that was sure to come with the forced departure of Barcelona’s greatest player. That is, Barcelona deliberately waited until a week before the season to announce it, putting the blame squarely on La Liga and its rules. In the eyes of the public, club officials demonstrated that they at least gave it their all.

Conclusion

Till now there is no concrete news of Messi returning to Barcelona and it seems unlikely he will return back unless La Liga relaxes its rules. While Paris Saint-Germain has, after signing Messi, created a dream team consisting of some of the world’s best football players namely Messi, Mbappe, Neymar and so many more. But, Barcelona without Messi does not seem like Barcelona at all.

References

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