Lionel Messi tearfully announced to the world on August 8 that he would be leaving the only club that he played for since he started his football career at age 13. A distraught Messi had finally reached an agreement with FC Barcelona and was due to enter a new contract with a club on August 5, before the deal was cancelled.

Messi, 34, has only played at one club professionally. The Argentinian joined the Catalan club at the age of 13 so that the club could pay for his hormone therapy treatment. In his 21-year tenure with the club, Messi has had 778 appearances and 672 goals to his name.

Why is Messi leaving Barcelona?

Messi has to leave Barcelona because both parties failed to draw up a new contract to extend his time at the club. Messi’s contract had expired on July 1. Messi had not agreed to a renewal last year. He had expressed his desire to leave the club. His frustrations lay with Barcelona’s management, especially with former club president Josep Maria Bartomeu.

Why did Messi not sign a new contract?

After his previous contract expired and Messi became a free agent, the football god had changed his mind about leaving the club. In fact, with Joan Laporta now in charge, Messi had expressed his desire to continue playing with Barca. The club’s new administration too wished to retain Messi.

But, after a year of COVID-19 induced lockdowns and economic downturn, financial issues proved to be a problem. The club could no longer afford Messi. However, Messi had even agree to a pay cut of 50 percent, which would have reduced his salary to $85 million a year for the next five years of his career.

However, even that was impossible for FC Barcelona, which took in losses of $400 million during the pandemic season.

Why can’t FCB afford Messi?

The financial fair play rules imposed by La Liga, the Spanish football league within which FC Barcelona competes, almost rendered it impossible for the club to finalise a deal with the star footballer. Under the strict regulations, FC Barcelona can only spend 70 percent of its revenue on player wages. As a result of the pandemic, the ace club needs to offload $200 million worth of player wages from its current roster. With Messi’s pay cut, the club’s wage expenditure would have been at 110 percent of its turnover; even with him gone the figure stands at 95 percent.

The club is expected to part ways with other star players like Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, Philippe Coutinho, Samuel Umtiti and Martin Braithwaite while those that remain have been asked to take a pay cut.

"Before anything, I want to explain that we have received a terrible inheritance from the previous board, which means that salaries at the Club represent 110 percent of income. There is no room to manoeuvre and the La Liga fair play financial rules mark the limits,” said club president Laporta.

According to Laporta, to comply with the league's fair play regulations, FC Barcelona accepted an agreement that mortgaged its TV rights for half a century.

The agreement that Laporta referred to was the landmark deal between La Liga and private equity entity CVC Capital Partners, for a 10 percent stake for 2.7 billion euros (2.3 billion pounds). The deal would see the private equity entity entitled to 10 percent of the revenue of the league even as 90 percent of the invested amount would be given over to the 42 clubs in La Liga. Real Madrid and Barcelona have stated that they are opposed to this deal, and not willing to hand over 10 percent of revenue to outside investors.

What's next for Messi?

Even as doors to Barcelona are possibly closed to Messi for now, the six-time Ballon D'or winner has received other offers. In particular, French club Paris Saint Germain (PSG) has already sent a formal two year contract to the forward. While no official announcement has been made, many experts think that the deal is as good as done.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Aug 9, 2021 8:24 PM IST