Barcelona President Juan Laporta confirmed that negotiations with Argentine star Lionel Messi have ended and the decision has been taken completely, and no more can be done, and there is no going back, stressing that the Catalan team without the "Bulga" will continue to succeed and win titles.
He added - in a press conference - that a new era has begun now, which is after Messi, and we want it to be successful, and he said, "We did the best for Barcelona."
He explained that the Catalan club had hoped for some flexibility from the Spanish League, but the latter did not "give us any exception."
He said, "Messi had other offers on the table but he wanted to stay, also if our offer was inferior from the financial point of view, it would not create any problem for him. Leo made a lot of financial efforts to stay here, and the contract was agreed with him, Messi made things easier. We had to, but the League was not flexible."
He added, "We tried everything possible in order for Messi to continue, within the framework of the club's economic issue, and we reached an agreement with Messi, but because of the club's financial problems, we were unable to complete the process. We are not going to talk about old, wrong decisions at the club."
He continued, "We are all trying to solve the economic issue, but even without Messi, there is no large margin for contracts or salaries. The margin is very small, even without Messi. We had to reduce salaries a lot, but we found solutions."
And, "If we agreed to the La Liga offer, it would have improved financial matters, but as I said again, the Catalan club's future cannot be risked, because it will hurt after 50 years. We feel very sad, but the decision had to be taken," he said.
Yesterday, Thursday, Barcelona denounced an agreement that includes billions of dollars in investments and revenue sharing between the Spanish League and CVC for private equity.
Barcelona said - in a statement yesterday - that "the announced process has not been sufficiently discussed with the clubs (the owners of the TV rights) and that the amount does not correspond to the years of the term, and the agreement will affect part of the club's audio-visual rights within 50 years .. Barcelona expresses He was surprised by the agreement led by the Spanish League, where the opinions of clubs - including Barcelona - were not taken into account .. With Messi, the salary ceiling is 110%, that is, it exceeds the limit, without Messi now the salary ceiling is 95%, that is, the margin we have now is a small 5%.
Laporta concluded, "What prevented us from renewing Messi's contract is the salary ceiling and the club's income. We tried to find solutions, but our salary ceiling is very high compared to incomes, and this affected us. We had to reduce salaries in order to renew Messi, we tried to talk to the players, But it was not easy at all, because there were contracts, some players accepted and others refused, frankly speaking. We tried to find other ways to complete this renewal, but it was not possible or possible, the situation was very difficult and dangerous for the club."
The Blaugrana president concluded, “I spoke with the team leaders on the phone and everyone wanted Messi to continue. It is very sad that Messi left, but sometimes you have to make decisions for the future of the club.”