Clubs All time leading goal scorer and Six time Ballon d’Or winner when expressed his desire to leave the club after the end of the last season. The whole world was on its feet
When everything was thought to be sorted out after agreement between both player and the club, a bomb-shell news was dropped on the evening of the meeting by Marca. Marca reported in it's post that there's been a debacle between Barcelona President, Laporta and the LaLiga Board which concludes Messi's signing in question.
https://twitter.com/marca/status/1423315348812673029?s=21
Couple of hours later, Barcelona issued a statement on their website citing "Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen because of Spanish LaLiga regulations on player registration. As a result of this situation, Messi shall not be staying on at FC Barcelona. Both parties deeply regret that the wishes of the player and the club will ultimately not be fulfilled."
What actually the LaLiga Rules depicts?
In 2013, LaLiga set a floating salary cap for every team which limits player wages and acquisitions to 70 percent of the revenue of the club.
As the drastically impacted season concludes due to pandemic, Barcelona are needed to shed over €200M in salaries to sign Messi. But due to lack of transfer activity and unable to offload their high wagers, they fell well behind that cap which led to more difficulties. Although, Barcelona tried to bend the rules set by LaLiga body in 2013, but LaLiga President Tebas remained unmoved and said, there won't be any exceptions towards any particular player.
However, the announcement of a massive private equity investment into LaLiga and its clubs was thought to have backed Barcelona in the financial way, who already are in debt with whopping €1 Billion, but the club chose to vote against the deal with CVC Capital Partners along with Real Madrid, Athletic Club and Oviedo.
Accepting the deal would have amounted them in more stable condition financially but also would permanently forgo their desire of European Super League.
Why all the fuss then?
Club like Barcelona would be well aware that they are never going to be in a position to sign Messi and his salary cap given by the transfer window gone through. Without offloading their fat-salaried players, it was never going to happen. Barcelona waited until a week before the season kick off to announce and putting the fault squarely on La Liga and its onerous rules, fans and medias are speculating that the false hope created over recent weeks was a PR ploy to help club management navigate the fan backlash that was imminent to come with the forced departure of Club's Greatest Player. Laporta, too, knew of the likely outcome all along despite campaigning for the presidency based on his ability to give the club its best chance to keep Messi. The financial situation that Laporta inherited is horrific and he knew it. We learned all about that reality when he spoke to the media on 6th August and outlined a financial situation that he says was much worse than what he was led to believe with losses of €490M incurred in the 2020-2021 season.
In view of people, Laporta and his team showed only the resistance they got while signing Messi by half blaming the previous board management of the club.
Last Season Drama:
In the summer of 2020, with one year left on his four-year, €578M Barcelona contract, Messi expressed his desire to leave, citing a broken bond with club management and a clause in his contract that he believed allowed him to depart. He claimed he had a verbal agreement with then-president Josep Bartomeu to honor the clause and release him from his contract.
But Bartomeu was not about to let the Barcelona legend walk, Messi refused to take the club to court for his principle and decided to have an extra season against his wishes.
Several believed that with Bartomeu leaving office and Joan Laporta taking his place as new President this year, there was a good chance that Laporta would find a way to keep Messi at Barcelona given his previous close relationship with him.
Messi's Last Words:
Messi expressed his desire in a press conference that he never wanted to leave, "I am really sad because I didn't want to leave. This is the club I love," he said. "I didn't expect this. I have never lied. I have always been honest and upfront. Last year I wanted to leave, this year I didn't. That's why I am so sad.
"As the president has explained, the club has debt. It's not possible. Why keep drawing it out if it's nearly impossible? The talks stopped since Barca did not want to go on. They knew La Liga would not let it happen, it was impossible.”
"I did everything I could to stay and it wasn't possible. I offered to reduce my salary by 50 percent and Barca didn't ask for anything else” he added.
"I didn't want to leave, but I have to. And I want to keep winning. That's my mentality. I want to win."
Messi also said he would be her often:
"My family and I were convinced we were going to stay, that's what we wanted more than anything. We are at home here," he said. "Now I have to say goodbye to all of this. I have been here since I was 13. After 21 years, I am leaving with my wife, with my three little Catalan-Argentine kids. I can't say that we won't come back in some way because this is our home and I promised my children we would.
"Barca are one of the best teams in the world, they have an amazing side. More players will come, not just now but in the future. Players come and go. As Laporta said, no one person comes before the club. At first, it will be weird, but people will get used to it."
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