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La Liga president Javier Tebas has said that only “financial doping” would allow Paris Saint-Germain or Manchester City to sign Lionel Messi on terms similar to their previous deal with Barcelona.
Messi, 34, is a free agent after his contract with Barca expired on June 30. The Catalan club hope to sign him in a new deal but must first make cuts to re-register him for next season due to La Liga’s financial fair play. rules.
The Argentina international’s latest contract was worth more than € 500million over four years, including commitment fees, bonuses and his weekly salary. Tebas says Messi has to take a hit to stay at Camp Nou.
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“Exactly,” he said on a call to British media when asked if Messi is expected to suffer a big pay cut this summer. “He will not be able to sign under the previous conditions, it is impossible. But I do not think that a European club would be able to pay this amount.”
PSG have already signed Sergio Ramos, Achraf Hakimi and Georginio Wijnaldum this summer, while City have been linked with € 100million plus moves for England duo Harry Kane and Jack Grealish.
However, Tebas had a warning for the two state-owned clubs, both of which have shown interest in Messi.
“The city lost 270 million euros [during the pandemic] so obviously they wouldn’t even consider signing Messi [on his previous salary]”added the La Liga chief.” PSG also suffered losses so they can’t even consider signing Messi [for that much].
“If they do it, it will be financial doping. It would be amazing if that happened. We have to set limits. Financial doping harms football.
“It is not real money because it is not generated by the clubs. Money that does not come from football causes bad inflation and ruins football because clubs have to put in all these efforts. [to compete], which takes them above their financial capacity.
“We have to fight this. It is one of the outstanding issues in European football. If it is not resolved, the game will end up in a very complicated situation.”
Tebas insisted the league will not be flexible when it comes to saving Messi’s new deal, saying he believes Barca will make the necessary cuts and the forward is “closer” to re-sign for the Blaugrana than to go elsewhere.
However, after saying earlier that he “doesn’t know” whether Messi will be signed up in time for La Liga to start on August 14, he also insisted that the league should not be obsessed with individual players. .
“We still want the best players, but Neymar is gone, Cristiano Ronaldo is gone and we are still here, growing,” he said. “And as far as I know, neither Serie A nor Ligue 1 have grown as much as they would have liked.
“When the Italian [league] took Ronaldo, they told me the broadcast rights would go up. They have just lost 200 million euros on international television rights and at the national level, it is 10% less. I would be sorry if Messi left, he’s the best ever, but we shouldn’t become obsessed with [individual] players. “
Barca’s salary cap before the pandemic exceeded € 600m, as it has fallen to € 347m this year. He’ll fall again next season, but Tebas says they’ll bounce back.
“Barcelona are going through uncertain times but they will be able to solve their problems because they have the highest turnover in the world,” he added. “When they return to normal turnover, they will have restructured their debt and reduced their payroll.
“Like others, due to the pandemic, they have exceeded their spending limit. When clubs exceed, we have a rule called one by four. We allow new players. [to be registered] every time they reduce the current payroll.
“For every euro they want to use for registrations, they have to save € 4. For example, if the players Barça signed, [Sergio] Aguero and others are going to cost 50 million euros for next season, that means 200 million euros have to be saved, either by transfers or by reducing the wage bill. “
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