Joan Laporta Explains Barcelona's Statement Regarding Messi's Contract
After the recent statement by F.C. Barcelona that the club would not be renewing the contract for Lionel Messi, the club's president, Joan Laporta, has now released a press conference addressing the decision made by the club.
Messi’s Barcelona contract ended on 1st July and Messi knew the club's financial issues. He decided to take a 50% salary cut and there were rumors F.C. Barcelona will be extending his contract for 5 more years. However, yesterday’s news came as a shock for the fans and Joan Laporta has now explained the situation that led to the decisions made.
The president held a press conference which was also streamed live on the club's YouTube channel and Facebook page. He explained: “The salary mass is 110% of the total income of the club. We don’t have any margin in terms of salary.” He further added: "The rules and regulation of the Spanish La Liga is regulated by Financial Fair Play. We knew that when we got to the club and the numbers after the first audit are far worse than the numbers that were exposed initially."
The UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulation was established to restrain football clubs from spending more than they're are earning, in order to prevent them from facing any troubles in the future.
He said: "This is all tied to the UEFA financial fair play. We can’t fit the contract that we agreed to, with Messi. In order to have the fair play, Barca had to agree to an operation which otherwise could affect the club in the next 50 years in terms of television rights.”
He added that the club is 100 years old and that he can’t make decisions that could affect its legacy, as he believes nothing is above the club, not even the greatest player in the world.
He ended his introduction by saying, "Messi wanted to stay at Barca, we wanted him to stay and we thank everyone who was in these negotiations during these last few months, but after all these negotiations there comes a moment where you need to say, enough.", before he started taking questions from the journalists.
He also praised Messi on various occasions and said: "Leo deserves everything, he has proven he loves Barca.” At other instances he said that there were a lot of joyful and memorable moments and they are utterly thankful to Lionel Messi for that."He has an excellent legacy. He was the player with the most success."
Joan Laporta expressed his sorrow and said, "We wanted the post-Messi era to be started in 2 years which starts today but they have to take account of the circumstances too. We all wanted his talent, his magic playing at Barca, but at the moment it can’t be.” Although Joan Laporta did not want this, he is confident that what he did was for the welfare of the club and soon things will be normal. “A new era starts today as there was with other great players in the history of Barca” said Joan Laporta.
During the negotiations, Joan Laporta revealed that Messi was always present and tried to make things easier for them. He was initially offered a contract for 2 years which was to be paid in 5 years. The second agreement was a 5-year contract. However, after technical analysis from the La Liga commission, they found out the contract wouldn’t be valid and had to quit their decisions which Barcelona did not want. Barcelona was about to receive some money but the president explained that affecting the television rights was not in the best interest of the club.
Joan Laporta also said that most of the other players will also go under salary reduction. The club has reached to most of the players and will reach an agreement with the others as well.
Messi has won 6 Ballon d'Or awards during his stay in Barcelona. He was also the top scorer for the club and holds the record for most goals while playing from a single club. He is also the all-time highest scorer and assister in the Spanish league La Liga. He was also part of the two treble wins by Barca: the 2008-2009 and 2014-2015 season. These, along with many other achievements, were won by Messi during his run with Barcelona where he was playing since his professional debut.
With Barcelona releasing Lionel Andres Messi, the Argentinian star is now a free agent. Messi has yet to decide how to shape his future footballing career as different European clubs would be contacting him to sign one of the legends of the game. Could it be PSG, Manchester City, or maybe even Barcelona’s footballing rival Real Madrid? Who knows, as the future has yet to reveal many answers to the questions that football fans are asking themselves.
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