Premier League alert! Lionel Messi's contract with Barcelona ends - leaving him a free agent
Messi, 34, is believed to be the best-paid athlete in the world, with a salary of nearly £500m over four years.
news.sky.com
Biiiiiig MoNEYY
So if he is now a free agent, that means that if he decides to stay at barca then it will be deemed a new signing, and fall under ffp.....is this correct?
If so how the hell can barca afford to do this?
Not read what that tit Tebas said, but if barca re-sign him and it is classed as a 'new signing' for the season which means it will fall under ffp restrictions - then surely the amount of money in question would effectively mean barca cant make it work without breaking ffp regsIt feels all be a bit of a pantomime.
Barcelona, or rather Laporta, can claim they wanted and tried to sign messi and he really wanted to stay, but the financial mess by bartomeu meant they had to move forward as a club.
Interestingly, nothing at all from the messi camp. The only thing this morning is a claim by Goal (who messi gave that exclusive interview to btw) that they understand Messi is 'calm and focused on the tournament and not on his contract situation'.
Not read what that tit Tebas said, but if barca re-sign him and it is classed as a 'new signing' for the season which means it will fall under ffp restrictions - then surely the amount of money in question would effectively mean barca cant make it work without breaking ffp regs
Seems weird that the deadline has gone as surely barca would have been hoping messi would have agreed to re-new before it expired
Psychologically at least, it will be a strange feeling for him to wake up and know he is not under contract at any football club. There's no accounting for how he might feel.
Having read what tebas said, or the reported version, I think it can be interpreted two ways.
Barcelona are above a wages over cap threshold which triggers a sanction that means they can only spend 25% of what they raise, in both transfer fees and wages.
So if with messi on their wages they are over the cap, messi is removed from the wages they fall below, that imposition is removed and he or anyone can sign for them without having to offset funding 75% of that by sales or wage reductions. Sounds perverse, and the timing might not really work, but purely reading what he said, it is there, for me.
The other side is, as you suggest, that now that he hasn't re-signed as a continuing player, he is effectively a new signing and falls under those same restrictions, assuming they are still over the wage cap threshold. I.e if they are to pay him 50m a year, they have to free up 200m to do so. Making it impossible to sign him. Which seems the more logical one to me tbh.
Tebas obviously has the say, and if there are two interpretations to choose from, doubt it will be one that has an adverse effect on Barcelona.
Our former team-sheet leaker, Jose Alvarez Haya, is saying Messi is staying. You’d think he’d know, being so close to Sergio?