Argentine star Lionel Messi confirmed that he did everything in his power to continue with Barcelona, and club president Joan Laporta said that all efforts were made before deciding to abandon Messi's services, but did not Messi have the option to play for free for Barcelona to save the team that opened the doors for him More than 20 years ago?
This question revolves among a number of observers of the developments in the Messi case, and they wonder why the Argentine star did not sacrifice his salary in order to continue with his team, which is facing great financial troubles that prevented him from embodying the renewal deal that was previously reached.
To understand the current situation in the Catalan club, the French RMC website has monitored numbers that explain the current predicament of the Laporta administration and the dark future of the team if decisive and quick measures are not taken.
Barcelona's calculations showed that the team suffered a significant decline in its income due to the repercussions of the Corona pandemic, the absence of fans from the stadiums and the decline in sales, and the Catalan club lost nearly 550 million euros of income between March 2020 and June 2021.
This number is a big problem;
Because in the Spanish League there are regulations that differ from what is adopted in other leagues, where the regulations require that the club's salaries do not exceed 70% of its income.
Accordingly, FC Barcelona will be required to reduce its salary block from 347 million euros to 160 million euros.
With a salary of around 61 million euros for the 2020-2021 season, Lionel Messi alone is not enough to reduce the total salaries paid to the Blaugrana players.
Laporta said - in his press conference a few days ago - that the club will exceed the permissible salary limit by 115% of income in the event that Messi remains, and without him, the team will remain above the ceiling set by 95%.
Accordingly, even Messi playing for free for Barcelona was not the only solution to the team's financial crisis.
The French website believes that worse than Messi's crisis, Barcelona will be unable to register its new players Eric Garcia, Sergio Aguero and Memphis Depay, unless he succeeds in reaching an agreement with all the players in order to reduce salaries, or sell more players, especially those with high salaries such as Coutinho. And Pjanic and Umtiti.