Barcelona President Joan Laporta explains why Leo Messi will be leaving the Catalans.
Laporta held a press conference on Friday morning to explain the Argentinean’s departure from the Nou Camp.
His contract had expired in June 2021 and the two parties had reached an agreement to extend the player’s stay at the club.
“The inheritance we have received is dreadful. The salary mass is 110% of the income of the club. We don’t have any margin in the La Liga rules and regulations. We have no margin,” Laporta explained at a press conference, as quoted by Football Espana.
“We knew that when we got to the club. The numbers are a lot worse than the numbers that were exposed initially.
“The losses are a lot more elevated than what we had expected. We are spending more than we expected and the current contracts mean we have a salary mass of great magnitude.
“Leo wanted to stay at Barca and to get him to stay was the first step that was made, but with Fair Play,” the President continued.
“It needed to be of a certain duration and he has other offers, of course.”
“In the Spanish La Liga, we have to abide by the rules. We think they can be more flexible, but that is not an excuse.
“We knew the regulation, but we could not abide by it because of the inheritance we have.”
“Leo’s legacy is excellent. Leo has made history. he is the player with the most success in the history of the club in an era which has been splendid, the best era of Barca’s history up until today.
“I hope we can overcome this situation. A new era starts now. There will be a before and after Leo, as there was with other great players.
“I don’t want to generate false hope and during the course of negotiations, we have known that the player has had other offers.
“There is a time limit for us and for them.”
If the salary mass is indeed 110% of the club’s income, then how is it that UEFA and the powers that be allowed them to not only continue to overspend, but also to take part in UEFA competitions? Once again a rule for a set of ‘special’ clubs and a rule for the rest? Milan‘s FFP breaches in the shape of losses were due to inheritance as well. But the losses were nowhere near the levels of Barcelona.
I simply don’t understand how this happened. Barcelona has known about the rules and what it would take to make Messi stay. I can’t believe that they couldn’t do the math to know about this outcome weeks, if not months, ago. Either Barcelona is even more horribly mismanaged than we knew (and can’t do simple maths) or there is an another motive / power play in motion.