Much has been said the last few days about the sudden last-minute breakdown of Lionel Messi’s contract talks with FC Barcelona, causing consternation and alarm in the football stratosphere.<\/p>\n
At the end of it all, it is supposed to all boil down to massively-overblown salaries, the inability to effectively structure drastic pay reductions to balance the pay caps and UEFA\u2019s stringent FFP regulations when it comes to signing new players, especially those who come with humongous salaries like Messi commands at a snap of his fingers. Or are there actually sinister implications to the debacle that imploded at Barcelona than meets the eye?<\/p>\n
New details have emerged claiming that there is infinitely much more to it than the simple fact that the club can’t re-sign the player due to La Liga Santander’s Financial Fair Play regulations.<\/p>\n
While rumors are on the upswell that the world\u2019s most famous Argentine will soon be clinching a deal with French giants Paris Saint-Germain and is already in the French capital for his medical, many less simplistically-inclined ones are still demanding answers from the Barcelona board, especially club members who now feel gullible having voted for Joan Laporta under the premise that he will ensure that Messi stays \u2013 no matter what.<\/p>\n
In Barcelona’s statement released on Thursday about Messi’s departure, the news that came out weeks ago was confirmed. The club and the player have supposedly agreed to the terms of a new deal, but Barcelona irrefutably claims that La Liga’s regulations are the main reason behind the final breakdown of the renewal.<\/p>\n
However, according to Marca, football-centered Spanish program “El Chiringuito”<\/em> has revealed some shocking details about the real reasons why the deal did not materialize. According to them, Messi and his father\/agent Jorge had actually arrived at a meeting with the club with the full belief that the previously agreed terms would be signed on Thursday.<\/p>\n As previously reported, that new deal involves a 40% pay cut plus the 10% cut he already agreed upon at the end of 2020. However, Leo and Jorge Messi were reportedly blindsided by the club, who presented them with a deal that called for a massive salary reduction of 70%.<\/p>\n Jorge Messi was left completely livid and went ballistic, as he never expected the club to further amend their previous agreement. Club vice president Rafael Yuste was said to be at the receiving end of some scathing comments from Messi Sr.<\/p>\n “Are you joking? It’s not about the money, because my son already made an effort to reduce his salary. We’ve been negotiating for two months and we’re making the renewal official tomorrow [Friday]. Are you doing this to us? I didn’t expect this from you,” he reportedly said.<\/p>\n Laporta, too, did not escape the wrath, with Jorge reportedly accusing him of using Messi in order to win the presidential elections back in March. Laporta had assured club members that his main mission would be to convince Messi to stay, and he had stuck to the same campaign theme song up until the final announcement of the player’s departure was actually made. Thereafter, he conveniently placed the bulk of the blame largely on La Liga and Javier Tebas, whose regulations he wanted to bend.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"