Barcelona president Joan Laporta has come clean and provided a thorough update on the dire situation that the club find themselves in after deciding to allow Lionel Messi to leave on a free transfer.<\/p>\n
Barcelona announced on Thursday night that the Argentina superstar would finally be leaving Camp Nou, with financial restrictions and FFP preventing them from offering him a contract renewal.<\/p>\n
Laporta revealed Messi was even offered a two-year deal spread out over a five-year contract in a bid to stay within FFP and the club\u2019s spending limits.<\/p>\n
But when push came to shove, the Barca chief was candid and said keeping Messi would have put the club at financial risk \u201cfor the next 50 years\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a press conference to explain Messi\u2019s shock departure,\u00a0Laporta said:<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here to explain the situation we\u2019ve reached with\u00a0Lionel Messi. First of all, I would like to say the inheritance we\u2019ve received is awful. It\u2019s dreadful.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were already at 100 per cent and we don\u2019t have any margin in terms of salary. And the rules and regulations of the Spanish La Liga is regulated by FFP and we don\u2019t have any margin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew that when we got to the club, but I have to say that when we got to the club the numbers that were presented to us, those numbers are a lot worse than those exposed initially and those we were working with.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe losses are a lot more elevated than we had expected and what we\u2019re spending is a lot more than what we expected. The current contracts means we have this salary mass of great magnitude and it allows us no margin. This is all tied to FFP, and as you know in La Liga this doesn\u2019t follow the criteria of cash.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we couldn\u2019t fit in the first contract that we\u2019d agreed to with Messi. In order to have that fair play, Barca had to agree to an operation that would affect the club for the next 50 years in terms of television rights and that has meant that when I have to make the decision, I can\u2019t make one that would affect the club for this length of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club is over a hundred years old and it\u2019s above everyone and everything. Even above the best player in the world. The club comes before players and presidents. But the point I must stress is that there are objective reasons regarding the economical situation of the club. An investment of that volume with the contract of Messi was risky.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to assume that risk, all of us on the board of directors but when we realized the real financial situation of the club after the audit, we realized it would put the club at great risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ratio that we have on the salary limit is four to one. So to bring in \u20ac25m in salary we had to release \u20ac100m euros. That\u2019s a lot of players on a lot of reduction. We\u2019re worked intensely in terms of trying to liberate some of that salary mass with some players\u2026 we\u2019ve reached agreements and with others it\u2019s not an easy process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not easy. Maybe we\u2019ll have to make other decisions but they\u2019re not a guarantee of being the right solution. It\u2019s an uneasy and risky situation for the club and it all requires time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is true is that with what we were counting on for Leo, the salary mass would\u2019ve been 110 per cent compared to the income of the club and that\u2019s not sustainable. That\u2019s why we will continue to work along these lines. The salary mass has us tied right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were decisions made in the past which restrict us right now. People ask why could we sign Aguero and Depay \u2013 but these are players who\u2019ve come to the club accepting certain conditions in terms of salary and we have to thank them for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laporta has made it clear that he does not want to generate \u201cfalse hope\u201d over potentially trying to keep Messi, who is understood to be in deep shock.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to generate false hope. During the course of the negotiations, we\u2019ve known that the player has had other offers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a time limit, both for us because La Liga starts shortly and for his representatives because they need time. If Fair Play continues to be rigid, the player also needs some time to see what he\u2019s going to do \u2013 to evaluate his situation and look at other options.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been at it for two months and we\u2019ve gone through different stages. The first agreement was a two-year contract to be paid in five years and Leo was in agreement with that. He was always present in the negotiations and he tried to make it easy for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we thought that it would be allowed within the regulations the criteria of cash came into play, which isn\u2019t allowed here like it is in other countries. La Liga had its pressures because other clubs want rules to be abided by. Then we agreed to a five-year contract that was accepted by Leo even though we were all thinking of two more years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all thinking of two years and then if he wanted more, we would sit and negotiate. We wanted the post-Messi era to start in two years. But the circumstances have meant we\u2019ve had to bring that forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe five-year contract we thought would be allowed by the FFP regulations. But after a technical analysis by the La Liga commission, we found out that this contract wouldn\u2019t be valid within those regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way was to accept La Liga\u2019s operation that\u2019s not in Barca\u2019s best interest. We were going to receive some money but we believe that accepting that money but affecting our television rights for the future is something we can\u2019t accept.\u201d<\/p>\n