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Updated July 9th, 2021 at 13:57 IST

'Barcelona won't be able to sign Lionel Messi on previous salary': La Liga president Tebas

According to La Liga president Javier Tebas, the club will not be able to offer free agent Lionel Messi a new deal unless they offload more players

Reported by: Prithvi Virmani
Barcelona
Image Credits: FC Barcelona Twitter | Image:self
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La Liga president Javier Tebas believes it would be impossible for FC Barcelona to match the previous salary of Lionel Messi as the Catalan club is going through a financial predicament. On July 1, Messi became a free agent after his contract with Barcelona expired but the club has still not given up on trying to sign him on a two-year deal.  According to sources, Messi's last contract was worth more than €500 million over four years, including signing on fees, bonuses, and his weekly salary. 

Messi must take a substantial pay cut if he wants to stay on at Barca: Tebas

Tebas ruled out La Liga relaxing their Financial Fair Play rules to allow the six-time Ballon d'Or winner to stay at the Nou Camp, saying 'Messi must take a substantial pay cut.'

"He (Messi) won't be able to sign on the previous conditions, that's impossible," ANI sources quoted Tebas. "I don't think any European club would be able to pay that amount."

Tebas warns Manchester City against trying to sign Messi

Tebas also warned Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain against the signing of Messi as they would be unable to match the Argentine's previous salary. "Manchester City have lost €270 million (during the COVID-19 pandemic) so obviously they would not even consider signing Messi (on his old salary). If they do, it will be through financial doping. I have told (Pep) Guardiola this too. I have directly said that to him, 'would you have won so many titles without as much economic doping?' When the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) let off Manchester City there were a lot of comments about that. (Jose) Mourinho and all these other coaches said this. If this happens I think it would be absolutely incredible."

"This is the sort of governance where we should establish minutes. This economic doping is what is really damaging football. It is not real money that's involved because it is not generated by the clubs. If the money in the football industry isn't generated by football, it just causes inflation. And it's a bad type of inflation. Then it just ruins football because the clubs have to put in all this effort which is well above their financial capacity."

"We need to really fight against this and we will continue to do this all the time. This is one of our pending issues in European football and if it's not solved soon it could lead us to a very complicated financial situation."

Salary cap not letting Barca re-sign Messi

The Catalan giants are unable to register any of the players they have signed this summer because of the salary limit imposed on the club. This is what is stopping them from confirming a deal for Messi, as per sources Barcelona's salary cap before the COVID-19 pandemic was over €600 million and since then it has dropped to €347 million this year.

Messi has helped guide Argentina to the Copa America final and on Saturday will play against hosts Brazil hoping to win a first major trophy with his country.

But his club future still needs to be settled with the La Liga season starting again in five weeks' time. Tebas said the only way for Barca to keep their captain was to get rid of more players, having recently sold left-back Junior Firpo to Leeds United and USA international Konrad de la Fuente to Marseille.

"If no player leaves, it's impossible," he added. "Currently Football Club Barcelona, like other clubs, have gone over the sport squad limit that was established by the Liga due to the pandemic. But in those particular cases when they've gone over it we have a regulation, which is called one by four. So we allow them to sign on new players, whenever they reduced the current wage bill. The regulation is for each euro that they want to use for sign-ups, they have to save four."

(Image Credits: FC Barcelona Twitter)

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Published July 9th, 2021 at 13:57 IST

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