Messi tax fraud implications

[whicko]

It couldn't happen.....could it?
Manchester City are among four clubs keeping an eye on the Leo Messi tax fraud allegations, according to reports in Portugal.

Portuguese newspaper A Bola claims Messi is unhappy with a perceived lack of support from Barcelona as he's come under investigation by Spanish authorities for tax fraud.


And Manchester City are one of four teams monitoring developments, well aware of the player's gigantic €250m release clause.

Anzhi Makhachkala, Paris St Germain and Monaco are the three other teams credited with an interest.

Financial concerns would not be an issue for any of the four clubs, and the report claims an offer of €120m would test Barcelona's resolve this summer.

The four-time Ballon d'Or winner has publicly played down the tax fraud allegations but behind the scenes the report suggests he's displeased with Barca officials. He and his father have been accused of defrauding Spanish tax authorities of more than €4m by filing false returns.

The alleged hidden funds concern payments regarding Messi's image rights, which the authorities claim have been sheltered via of series of shell companies scattered around the world.

The 'lack of support' angle brings to mind concerns reportedly shared by Cristiano Ronaldo regarding his Ballon d'Or candidacy last year.

It's difficult to believe Messi - who has spent his entire career at Barcelona and is the club's record goalscorer - would be unhappy at the Nou Camp.

But while the allegations continue to linger over the Argentine, the report claims the four teams will keep an eye on developments

 

[Blue Smarties]

I can't see it happening.

 

[BigOscar]

Ignore anything reported by A Bola tbh. Less reliable than twitter

 

[rick773]

I was actually kind of thinking about this recently and although I'm not crazy enough to actually believe it , after watching how they're handling pep I think if anyone is stupid enough to sell messi it's probably their current regime

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

It couldn't happen.....could it?
Manchester City are among four clubs keeping an eye on the Leo Messi tax fraud allegations, according to reports in Portugal.

Portuguese newspaper A Bola claims Messi is unhappy with a perceived lack of support from Barcelona as he's come under investigation by Spanish authorities for tax fraud.


And Manchester City are one of four teams monitoring developments, well aware of the player's gigantic €250m release clause.

Anzhi Makhachkala, Paris St Germain and Monaco are the three other teams credited with an interest.

Financial concerns would not be an issue for any of the four clubs, and the report claims an offer of €120m would test Barcelona's resolve this summer.

The four-time Ballon d'Or winner has publicly played down the tax fraud allegations but behind the scenes the report suggests he's displeased with Barca officials. He and his father
have been accused of defrauding Spanish tax authorities of more than €4m by filing false returns.

The alleged hidden funds concern payments regarding Messi's image rights, which the authorities claim have been sheltered via of series of shell companies scattered around the world.

The 'lack of support' angle brings to mind concerns reportedly shared by Cristiano Ronaldo regarding his Ballon d'Or candidacy last year.

It's difficult to believe Messi - who has spent his entire career at Barcelona and is the club's record goalscorer - would be unhappy at the Nou Camp.

But while the allegations continue to linger over the Argentine, the report claims the four teams will keep an eye on developments

Steer clear of this one!!

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

It's all in danger of going a bit tits up at Barcelona. Rosell has caused a number of divisions and it seems like Guardiola might have been the glue that held it all together. They have a history of in-fighting there anyway but, as we said about Mancini, you can get away with a lot if you're successful but if not, things can fall apart quite quickly. Cruyff was the architect of the modern Barcelona in many ways and he's clearly unhappy about where they're going under Rosell and said recently that they didn't need Messi & Neymar.

This Messi tax case has interested me because I always look for an underlying motive in things like this. It's possible that the economic situation in Spain is causing the tax authorities to be more aggressive and to use Messi as an example. But I can't imagine that he's the only one using complex tax avoidance schemes so I'd have thought they would have mounted a more public and wider-reaching investigation into footballers if that were the case.

Another possibility is that someone has shopped him but who and why? Could it have been Barca themselves, given what that article says? But the only reason they would do that is if there was a serious rift between him and the club so I wonder if Cruyff's comments weren't as off the cuff as they seemed.

I also read recently that he's Adidas's star name so what would it be worth to Nike to get hold of him? Add to that the fact that Sergio & Pablo Zab are his best mates, plus we've got Soriano & Begiristain, with possibly Pep himself in a couple of years and things start to get interesting.

However unless we're planning a few high profile sales or have a huge sponsorship deal or two in the pipeline then I think we're probably spent up for this summer.

 

[waspish]

Not a chance of buying him the fee and wages would be ridicules

 

[Smithy34]

Rosell is the worst thing that could have happened to Barca. The work carried out by Laporta/Soriano etc is becoming undone.

 

[dave_blue12]

I truly believe that if Messi became available then City/Sheik Mansour would find a way of funding his transfer.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Not a chance of buying him the fee and wages would be ridicules

Wasn't there a story that Nike were going to help fund Ronaldo's move back to the rags? Given that Messi is currently signed to Adidas that scenario seems entirely feasible.

He's supposedly on a salary of £13-14m a year, which is about £250k a week. The majority of his income comes from commercial deals and image rights on top of that. But I reckon we could attract most or not all of that in sponsorship/partnership deals. Companies would be queuing up. We could even do a new shirt deal for £25m a year.

Let's say we paid a fee €150m/£125m and Nike paid half that, plus we attracted all his wages in new revenue via sponsorships etc. that means Messi costs us £12.5m a year net. Get rid of Nasri and Milner and you've made that back and a bit more.