Especially since the team needs more than one player to be fully competitive again.At $85m/yr for Messi's age 34, 35, 36, 37, and 38 seasons, this is probably good for Barcelona.
As of the early hours of Friday morning, PSG have come to believe the cost of signing Messi will be overtaken by the commercial revenue he generates, both for PSG and in enhancing domestic rights for the French league.
00:58 CET
View: https://twitter.com/ActualiteBarca/status/1423403151701463045- La Liga are calculating the losses that Messi's departure will cause. SER via @ActualiteBarca
50 YEARS!!!!!!It seems like Real Madrid is with Barca on this because the term of the CVC deal is for 11% of league revenues for 50 YEARS(!!).
Q: The transfer window ends on 31st, can the situation with players like coutinho, Umtiti, Griezmann, Dembélé be addressed? Are we trying to put pressure on La Liga?10:42 CET - Laporta press-conference starts in 15 minutes, you can watch it free on YouTube here - View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd3DWZZcRgY
Joan Laporta: “Good morning everyone, I am here to explain the situation we have reached in the negotiations with Leo Messi. First of all, I would like to say that the inheritance that we have received is awful.” [Laporta is swinging freely at Barto & Co. throughout. Nice.]
️ Joan Laporta: “The salary mass is 110% of the total income of the club. We don't have any margin in terms of the salary. The rules and regulations of La Liga is regulate by a financial fair play and we don't have any margin.” [Looks like La Liga is the administrator of FFP rules and they have some latitude that they're choosing not to extend. Again, it seems like other major leagues have done this due to COVID.]
️ Joan Laporta: “we knew that when we got to the club, but I have to say that when we got to the club, the numbers that have been presented to us after the first conclusions of the audit and our analysis, those numbers are a lot worse than what we were exposed to initially.” [The dumb crooks were crooks.]
️ Joan Laporta: “The losses are a lot more elevated than what we expected, what we're spending is a lot more than we expected and the current contracts mean that we have this salary mass of great magnitude and it allows no margin. This is all tied to fair play.”
️ Joan Laporta: “the financial fair play in La Liga doesn't follow the criteria of cash. This is the reason why we couldn't fit in the first contract that we had agreed to with Leo Messi and I can explain to you if that's what you'd like.” [This seems crucially important--this is essentially what Barca is asking the league to reverse course on.]
️ Joan Laporta: “in order to have that fair play, Barça had to agree to an operation that would affect the club for the next 50 years in terms of TV rights. I can't make a decision that will affect the club for the next 50 years.” [Correct position.]
...
️ Joan Laporta: “the reason why we have decided that we have to get to this point is because of the economical situation of the club and that an investment of that volume with the contract of Leo Messi was risky.” [BIG OOF.]
️ Joan Laporta: “we wanted to assume those risks, all of us in the board of directors, but when we have realised what the real situation of the club is after the audit, it meant that we would have put the club in great risk.”
️ Joan Laporta: “The salary mass has a great deal to do with that, there's a great margin after the calamitous situation that was all down to the previous board of administration.”
️ Joan Laporta: “If we terminate contracts, that also has its risks and the only way to have that salary margin right now was to accept an operation that we don't think is interesting for Barça. It's an operation that puts the club at risk for the next 50 years.” [Key point here.]
️ Joan Laporta: “we understand that we can't do that and I want to end this introduction saying that Leo wanted to stay at Barça, we wanted him to stay. In fact he wanted to stay and that was the first step that was made, that was a key factor.”
️ Joan Laporta: “I want to thank everyone who has been in the negotiations both on behalf of the club and on behalf of Leo, we've been negotiating during the last few months with all the intricacies of a negotiation.”
️ Joan Laporta: “a lot of aspects had to be negotiated: Leo's contract needed to be be compatible with fair play, it needed to be of a certain duration, because he's the best player in the world and he has other offers of course.”
️ Joan Laporta: “After all of this, there comes a moment where you need to say it's enough, you need to analyse it with a cold head and look at the numbers. And in La Liga, we have to abide by the rules, we think that they can be more flexible but that's not an excuse.”
️ Joan Laporta: “we knew the rules and regulations but we couldn't abide by them because of the inheritance we have. Leo deserves everything; he's proven that he loves Barça, he has his roots in Barcelona. I'm sad, but I'm convinced we've done the best for FC Barcelona.”
Joan Laporta: “now we'll proceed to the questions.”
...
Q: is this situation truly irreversible? Can the situation be overturned and Messi stays at Barcelona?
️ Joan Laporta: “i don't want to generate false hope, during the course of negotiations, we knew that Messi had other offers and there was a time limit both for us and Messi.”
️ Joan Laporta: “messi also needs to be given time, if fair play continues to be rigid, the player also needs some time to see what he'll do, evaluate his situation and look at other options.”
️ Joan Laporta: “We've been negotiating for 2 months and we've gone through different stages. The first agreement was for 2 years that would be paid over 5 years and Leo agreed to that. He was always present in the negotiations and tried his best to make it easy for us.”
️ Joan Laporta: “when we realised that this wouldn't be possible because of fair play rules, the criteria of cash came into play, it is not allowed here whereas in other countries, it is. So it's all part of a process.” [Again, this seems like the key point IMO.]
️ Joan Laporta: “La Liga also had its process because there are other clubs also want the rules and regulations to be abided by.” [Other clubs don't seem on board with helping Barca retain Messi. That's understandable, but if it affects their revenue due to broadcast rights, it's biting their noses to spite their faces.]
️ Joan Laporta: “then we agreed to 5 year contract which was also accepted by Leo even though we were all thinking of 2 more years, we all agreed though. We were all thinking of 2 years and if he wanted more, we could sit and negotiate but 2 years at Barça is what we all wanted.”
...
️ Joan Laporta: “We thought the 5 year contract would be allowed by the fair play regulations, but after a technical analysis by the La Liga comission, we found out that this contract wouldn't be valid within the regulations.” [Read: We tried to fudge this, but the league wouldn't play along.]
️ Joan Laporta: “Now the only way was to accept la Liga's operation that wasn't in Barça's interest: we were going to receive some money but we think that accepting that money would affect our TV rights for the future and it's something that we can't accept.”
...
Q: Is the salary mass a problem? Did the other players not accept a reduction in salary?
️ Joan Laporta: “the ratio that we have in the salary limit is 4:1, so to bring in €25m in salary we have to release €100m, that's a lot of players and a lot of reduction.” [This seems really important, but I don't follow. Is he saying that in order to stay within the 110% of income limit, that's the formula to add additional wages at this point?]
️ Joan Laporta: “it's the direction that football is working intensely in terms of trying to liberate that salary mass... we've reached agreements with some players and with others who we're working with, it's not an easy process.”
️ Joan Laporta: “in the current contracts, some players had already accepted a salary reduction, they'd already restructured it in previous negotiations and it's not easy... Maybe we'll have to make other decisions but it won't be a guarantee to be the right solution.”
️ Joan Laporta: “It's a hard and risky situation for the club and it all requires time. What is true is that what we were counting on for Leo, the salary mass would've been 110% compared to the income of the club and that's not sustainable.” [Hmmmm, this kinda makes it seem like the club really might not want a deal for Leo, as crazy as that sounds.]
️ Joan Laporta: “that's why we'll continue to work along these lines, the salary mass has us tied right now and there were amendments that were made in the past that restrict that situation right now.” [I'd like to know what amendments he's talking about here.]
️ Joan Laporta: “People ask why can we sign Agüero, Emerson, Memphis... These are players that have come to Barça accepting certain conditions in terms of salary... We have to thank them for that.”
️ Joan Laporta: “the arrival of one of these players is incomparable to what it would've meant to formalise those agreements we've reached with Messi in terms of fair play.” [lol.]
️ Joan Laporta: “I don't want to create false hope, we were brought here because of the salary limit and la Liga not wanting to widen that salary limit, and to do it, we'd have to accept the operation. I insist that we can't affect our broadcasting rights for half a century.”
️ Joan Laporta: “there are other aspects of this agreement like selling 10% of La Liga rights that we just don't see very clearly, so we can't create false hope right now. Going from here, our motivation is... Great. We're more motivated that ever, players coaching staff...”
...
Q: Do you think you've made false promises to the fans? Do you feel responsible for those electoral promises?
...
️ Joan Laporta: “we reached an agreement with Messi but we weren't able to formalise it because of the economical situation that the club is going through; which means that we can't inscribe the player under that agreement because of the salary limit.”
Q: Is anyone guilty of this situation?
️ Joan Laporta: “We've had way less than 6 months because the audit numbers just came out. The numbers that were presented to us initially compared the numbers now makes the situation even worse than what we expected.”
️ Joan Laporta: “We've gone from bad to worse and the first conclusions of the audit confirm that. I had said that the negotiations were going well because it seemed La Liga was going to be more flexible with fair play and because Messi behaved in an excellent manner.”
️ Joan Laporta: “The players always made it easy for us so that's why we were saying that things were going well but at one point we had to say it's enough and in order to have fair play we need to do this or we need to do something that would put the club at risk.”
️ Joan Laporta: “we couldn't keep going with this, and we needed to make a decision and that's what we did.”
Thanks. Regarding the bolded though, it seems like the CVC deal La Liga negotiated is just plain bad (again, 50 EFFING YEARS!). So, the requirement to use funds for infrastructure may be intended to hit Barca/Real harder than the rest, but it's a shit deal for the league on its own terms.There is a ton of confusing stuff going on, but my understanding is the following:
La Liga's rules about salary make resigning Messi virtually impossible, at least without a series of other transactions that are either very difficult to pull off (selling lots of high salaried players nobody wants) or just extremely undesirable for the club (selling the prize jewel young players for huge fees).
Barcelona didn't take either of those paths above (for understandable reasons in the end) but gambled that a series of Deus Ex Machinae might save them, first the ESL, then Tebas relaxing the rules, and possibly a CVC deal on favorable terms. To some degree, this might have also been a PR move: They knew that this might not work but even if it failed it would allow them to move on from Messi while claiming to have done everything possible and to place the blame on La Liga for it happening.
Tebas refused to relax the rules and then negotiated the deal with CVC in a way that could potentially allow Messi to be registered if Barca agreed, but which was clearly undesirable for Barca and Real in the bigger picture. So no Deus Ex Machina has appeared and now the only way forward is to let Messi walk and then probably adopt a few additional cost cutting measures on top of that in order to get under the salary limit.
Beyond Barcelona, it is astounding that the GOAT is a free agent, he is still the best player in the world, and yet it seems like a Parisian sportwashing enterprise owned by a brutal dictatorship is the only club that will be in for him. They'll probably give him some kind of stupid contract like Neymar got that makes him a global ambassador for Qatar 2022. The financial model of football is completely broken.
This is a good recap. Seems like Barca played chicken assuming someone would blink.There is a ton of confusing stuff going on, but my understanding is the following:
La Liga's rules about salary make resigning Messi virtually impossible, at least without a series of other transactions that are either very difficult to pull off (selling lots of high salaried players nobody wants) or just extremely undesirable for the club (selling the prize jewel young players for huge fees).
Barcelona didn't take either of those paths above (for understandable reasons in the end) but gambled that a series of Deus Ex Machinae might save them, first the ESL, then Tebas relaxing the rules, and possibly a CVC deal on favorable terms. To some degree, this might have also been a PR move: They knew that this might not work but even if it failed it would allow them to move on from Messi while claiming to have done everything possible and to place the blame on La Liga for it happening.
Tebas refused to relax the rules and then negotiated the deal with CVC in a way that could potentially allow Messi to be registered if Barca agreed, but which was clearly undesirable for Barca and Real in the bigger picture. So no Deus Ex Machina has appeared and now the only way forward is to let Messi walk and then probably adopt a few additional cost cutting measures on top of that in order to get under the salary limit.
Beyond Barcelona, it is astounding that the GOAT is a free agent, he is still the best player in the world, and yet it seems like a Parisian sportwashing enterprise owned by a brutal dictatorship is the only club that will be in for him. They'll probably give him some kind of stupid contract like Neymar got that makes him a global ambassador for Qatar 2022. The financial model of football is completely broken.
Thanks. Regarding the bolded though, it seems like the CVC deal La Liga negotiated is just plain bad (again, 50 EFFING YEARS!). So, the requirement to use funds for infrastructure may be intended to hit Barca/Real harder than the rest, but it's a shit deal for the league on its own terms.
I think your first paragraph is what has me keeping out a small sliver of hope. If La Liga reverses course and basically allows for some funny accounting (e.g. paying Messi's salary for 2 seasons over 5 years and spreading out the hit), then there's a small chance he can re-sign.
I agree with Zoso that the CVC deal just seems really bad in general. Giving up a big chunk of revenue for 50 years because you're in a tough short term position due to the pandemic seems pretty insane. I don't quite understand why, but I've seen many people also claim that agreeing to this deal would close the door on Barca and Real eventually forming/joining an ESL, and if true that's another very problematic part of it from both their perspectives.This is a good recap. Seems like Barca played chicken assuming someone would blink.
You can see why Real would be pretty opposed to the CVC deal. In the last few years, they’ve made the hard choices and let Ronaldo, Ramos, and Varane go and have sold off multiple young guys like Hakimi, Brahim Diaz, and Reguilon to balance their financials.
I’m sure they have no desire to give up future revenue at the expense of bailing Barcelona out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves.
I'm not 100% on this but I think you're conflating two issues--the CVC deal and La Liga FFP enforcement rules. Barca and Real (and at least Bilbao as well) are against the CVC deal because it's shite. However, Real are not in favor of relaxing FFP rules because they've been behaving as if La Liga isn't going to bend and if the league changes course, the likeliest outcome benefits Barca due to being able to register their summer transfers and potentially re-sign Messi.This is a good recap. Seems like Barca played chicken assuming someone would blink.
You can see why Real would be pretty opposed to the CVC deal. In the last few years, they’ve made the hard choices and let Ronaldo, Ramos, and Varane go and have sold off multiple young guys like Hakimi, Brahim Diaz, and Reguilon to balance their financials.
I’m sure they have no desire to give up future revenue at the expense of bailing Barcelona out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves.
I think your first paragraph is what has me keeping out a small sliver of hope. If La Liga reverses course and basically allows for some funny accounting (e.g. paying Messi's salary for 2 seasons over 5 years and spreading out the hit), then there's a small chance he can re-sign.
Not sure if this is sarcastic or not, but I think Barca thought they had a real chance to have their cake and eat it too. IOW, Liga would eventually cave and while the books would be bad this year, they'd have Messi and the new transfers in the fold.So Barca made the smart decision of letting the GOAT go in his mid 30s rather than giving up guys like Pedri & Dest in order to get someone to take the Cutinho & Griezman's contracts? All after waiting three weeks to see if they could win a game of chicken with La Liga leadership?
Also, does this mean guys like Aguero & Depay are about to be back on the market?
It depends. Like I said to Gunfighter above, I think Laporta was trying to thread the needle of keeping Messi, registering the new guys, and treading water for another season waiting for next summer's window and a rebound in sale prices. That said, I'm still not sure why the club isn't looking to loan out some of Grizi, Dembele, and other high wage players, even if at a loss to reduce wage spend for at least this season.Honest question, would you want this to happen?
I mean funny accounting happens with every club, but to what end should this be allowed?
It's a definite possibility that Laporta & Co. are trying to shove as much shit into the 20-21 FY to take their lumps all at once while they can legitimately point to the previous Board. This also supports my fear that Laporta is a bit relieved by all of this, since even paying Messi 30% of his previous wages creates additional obligations. Of course, Messi at that rate is beneficial from a footballing perspective and it's the albatross contracts (Grizi, Dembele, Coutinho, etc.) that are the real problem.Laporta also said that he came into the job thinking they would lose 200m euro in 2020-21 but an audit has revealed that the true loss will be close to 500m euro. That is in just one fiscal year!
I can't even begin to guess how that happened but it definitely seems like the funny accounting needs to end at Barcelona and, from what I can tell, Laporta is actually serious about that.
Honestly, it's not that painful. It's taken about 30 years, but I finally have sports properly contextualized in my life. They still mean more to me than most, but I'm better about missing games, not following ALL the news, and not letting stuff like this affect me as much as I used to.Apologies to Zoso, for who I know this whole thing is painful, but this is a real circus. Tebas is now on Twitter lashing out at Laporta, basically claiming that they had a deal on CVC and that it would have allowed Messi to stay but that Barca backed out at the last minute. This tweet is kind of incoherent but he seems to be suggesting that Super League machinations are behind it all.
View: https://twitter.com/Tebasjavier/status/1423654550339268615
Poch is going to get his trophy(s).Not sure how it will work tactically since none of them play any defense, but Messi/Neymar/Mbappe is going to be quite the front 3.
at this point City might have to pay 200m for Kane if they want to try and keep up for that one.
Ramos & Messi together in Paris, almost a romantic comedy where two old enemies fall in love...Not sure how it will work tactically since none of them play any defense, but Messi/Neymar/Mbappe is going to be quite the front 3.
It feels to me like 3-4-3 would be the best system to protect them from having to do much on the defensive side. And they've already got Hakimi, probably the best RWB in the world.Not sure how it will work tactically since none of them play any defense, but Messi/Neymar/Mbappe is going to be quite the front 3.
Okay...but didn't they know that? If not, why would they not?La Liga has a wage cap, Barca are over it, so cannot register anyone else. (that’s the short version)
Edit: this is in response to DJnVa
I have no idea what will happen but PSG just isn't operating like a normal club at this point. They're like a public relations vehicle and advertising partner for Qatar 2022, which itself is a cynical attempt by the Qatari regime to sportwash its reputation and attract a new wave of global investors, retirees, tourists, and business development partners to Qatar to help cushion their eventual move off fossil fuels.I wonder if Mbappen will now move to Real? He has one year left right?
It’s my understanding that they were at something like 90+% of the cap even without Messi. Signing Messi was pretty much impossible without him either playing for pennies or them gutting their entire roster.Okay...but didn't they know that? If not, why would they not?
The NBA has a cap and you don't see teams signing guys and not finding they can't afford it until later--they know down to the dollar what they can spend.
And PSG may actually feel like, with this line-up, it is the year the team can win the Champions League.I have no idea what will happen but PSG just isn't operating like a normal club at this point. They're like a public relations vehicle and advertising partner for Qatar 2022, which itself is a cynical attempt by the Qatari regime to sportwash its reputation and attract a new wave of global investors, retirees, tourists, and business development partners to Qatar to help cushion their eventual move off fossil fuels.
So if Real offers 130m for Mbappe you'd think its a no-brainer rather than lose him on a free. But they actually might just keep him because even that kind of money is couch change in the big picture for the Qatari government. By some estimates they will end up spending over $100b on the World Cup, building stadiums, infrastructure, even an entire city.
Barca may actually welcome this. Even with Messi’s departure they are still in a world of salary hell. I think they gambled The La Liga officials would cave in their financial demands and it simply didn’t happen.Reports surfacing that Kun Aguero wants out.
So, did they think the league would just allow it? Was that the play?It’s my understanding that they were at something like 90+% of the cap even without Messi. Signing Messi was pretty much impossible without him either playing for pennies or them gutting their entire roster.
The "cap" is based on a club's revenue/debt/etc. From what I gather, it's negotiable, so they may have thought La Liga would increase theirs if they could improve their financial situation. Or they might simply be trying to save face with the fanbase, attempting to show they did everything they could to keep him.So, did they think the league would just allow it? Was that the play?
I'm still struggling to understand how a league has a cap. How a team knows what that cap is. And how a team then signs someone for more than they have available.
I fear he’s a shadow of his former self after his case of COVID. I was shocked that he got that deal.Barca may actually welcome this. Even with Messi’s departure they are still in a world of salary hell. I think they gambled The La Liga officials would cave in their financial demands and it simply didn’t happen.
If Aguero leaves … where to ? Juventus? Maybe Inter to replace the imminently departing Lukaku? Personally, I’d take him at Liverpool