Paris: Lionel Messi’s departure has left a huge gap in Barcelona and in the hearts of everyone related to the club. Reports emerging about Messi signing for French hotshots Paris Saint-Germain seems like a repeat of what happened in 2018 with then Barcelona wonder Neymar.
But Barcelona aren’t in a mood to let go of their and the world’s best. In a last possible attempt, lawyer Juan Branco, appearing for the Spanish giants filed an appeal in the Court of Appeals of Paris to withstand the last-minute move. Branco is using the fact that the Parisians are in a worse position than that of the Catalans in terms of UEFA Fair Play rules.
Messi, who joined Barcelona at the age of 13, left his boyhood club as a free agent as Barcelona’s financial conditions could not afford the Argentine even after the player agreed to reduce his wage by 50 per cent to comply with the La Liga Financial Fair Play rules.
Whereas for PSG, the income is far greater than the expense and can afford to pay Messi a deserving wage being under jurisdiction. The letter by Branco went on to highlight the expensive signings already confirmed by the Ligue 1 giants, including Achraf Hakimi, Sergio Ramos, Gianluigi Donnaruma, Georginio Wijnaldum and Danilo Pereira.
They have already made two of the most expensive signings in history – Neymar and Kylian Mbappé. According to Spanish daily Marca, Branco’s letter states, “PSG’s ratios in terms of ‘Financial Fair Play’ are worse than those of Fútbol Club Barcelona. In the 2019-20 season, the ratio between salaries and income for the Parisian team was 99 per cent, while that of Barça was 54 per cent.”
“In the 2019-20 season, PSG did not respect the two economic ratios imposed by the DNCG. On August 5, 2021, (Barca president) Joan Laporta announced at a press conference that he could not offer a new contract to Messi due to the salary cap imposed on the clubs.
“Leo’s contract, despite the fact that they wanted to reduce his salary by 50 per cent, would have reached 110 per cent of the salary cap imposed by the European authorities and by the Spanish La Liga,” the letter added.
While a lot of people think it was possible to have retained Messi and reportedly one of the executives resigned over the fact that Laporta has not tried enough to keep Messi. However, the current Barcelona board is trying their best not to go down in the history as the management that lost the services of Messi even when the talisman wanted to stay.
