Revealed: Reason Behind Delay of Lionel Messi’s New Contract Signing at Barcelona

The financial crisis was a big problem for Joan Laporta when he took over the charge as president of the club earlier this year but now the issue has become even huge.

New Delhi: Things are getting from bad to worse in the Barcelona camp as the financial crisis in the club is hurting them badly ahead of the next season. Barcelona, who are reportedly in debt for around €1.2 billion, are not eligible to register their new signings Sergio Aguero, Memphis Depay, Eric Garcia and Emerson. Apart from that, Barcelona have failed to extend club legend Lionel Messi’s contract till now as he is now a free agent and European Giants are trying hard to sign him. The Argentine is willing to stay at the club and the president Joan Laporta also wants to retain the services of the six-time Ballon d’Or winner.

The financial crisis was a big problem for Joan Laporta when he took over the charge as president of the club earlier this year but now the issue has become even huge. La Liga has imposed a salary cap on Barcelona which is making things difficult for the club to get Messi on board.

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the club pretty hard and rest of the work was done by the former president Josep Maria Bartomeu whose mismanagement caused chaos in the club the debt rose to around €1.2 billion this year. According to GOAL, in the summer of 2019 Barcelona had a salary limit of €671m (£577m/$796m), which has dropped to €348m (£299m/$413m) this year.

La Liga has its own Financial Fair Play rules which limit what each club spends on salaries. The league president Javier Tebas has already stated that the governing body will not make any exceptions for Barcelona’s in the Messi contract saga.

“We cannot make a rule for Messi or for [Erling] Haaland. The rules are what they are. The managers know it perfectly well and it will not change. The efforts made by Barca to reduce its salary bill are on the right track but there will not be a special rule. The rules have to be complied with, we are not going to change them. We are not going to make an ad-hoc rule for Messi,” Tebas said.

The Catalan giants need to reduce their wage bill by €200m, despite having already sold Konrad de la Fuente, Jean-Clair Todibo, and Junior Firpo. The club is trying to offload some more players with heavy wage bills like Samuel Umtiti, Miralem Pjanic and Philippe Coutinho. The trio earned more the €10 million per year on their current contract with the Blaugranas.

According to several reports, Barcelona are trying to terminate Umtiti and Pjanic’s contract with mutual consent but the players are not willing to do so. On the other hand, Coutinho has also failed to attract any bid from clubs so far. With the crisis getting bigger and Messi’s contract already on the line, Barcelona might be forced to sell Antoine Griezmann or Ousmane Dembele to reduce the wage bill.