Barcelona president admits: Not extending Messi's contract is in the club's interest
Barcelona President Joan Laporta admitted on Friday that extending the contract of the team's star and Argentine captain, Lionel Messi, would have posed "financial risks" to the Catalan club, which is under financial difficulty, stressing that he had done "what is best for the best interest" of the club.
Laporta added in a press conference held after Messi's departure from "Camp Nou" after 20 years, during which he wrote a football epic, that the latter received "other offers", without declaring the identity of the clubs interested in contracting the six-time Ballon d'Or holder.
"An investment of the scale represented by Leo Messi entailed certain risks that we were prepared to take," he continued, but "when we realized in detail the situation of the club" after the audit, "we did not want to expose the institution to further risk."
Laporta, who was re-elected to the presidency of Barcelona last March, against the background of his promise to keep Messi in Barcelona, has also accused the financial fair play system established by the Spanish League of preventing him from fulfilling his promise.
"I am sad, but I think we did what was best for the interests" of the club, he said.
According to the media, the English clubs Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain are competing to obtain the services of the "flea".
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