President of Barcelona, Joan Laporta, has spoken to Barcelona television following the announcement of Lionel Messi leaving the club. Laporta said in the press conference that the Argentine really wanted to stay back at the club. He also spoke about how the Financial Fair play was the reason Messi's contract could be renewed.
Joan Laporta
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Laporta gave the statement on the 6th of August where he stated that Messi wanted to stay with Barcelona as much as Barcelona wanted to keep the player, but they cannot change the reality of their situation.
Read the statement below;
Financial numbers and losses are worse than expected. Our salary mass is not leaving any margin. Financial Fair Play is also blocking us. I can't make a decision that could destroy the club. Barca is the most important thing.
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We can't register the contract of Leo Messi that was agreed on because of Financial Fair Play rules. Unfortunately, we received an inheritance in which we have no margin on the salary current situation.
Leo Messi wanted to stay in Barcelona. He had an agreement to stay at Barca and we wanted Leo to stay. I want to thank Leo's camp and all people involved in the negotiations. Unfortunately, because of La Liga's rules, we can't proceed.
I am sad but we did everything to keep Leo, and he was prepared to stay in Barcelona. It was agreed. A new era starts now without Lionel Messi. We will be thankful to Leo.
Chances to change the situation and re-sign Messi? I don't want to give fake hopes. We had a deadline because of La Liga is starting soon, Messi can look for other options.
We had an agreement with Messi to sign a five-year- contract but paying him two years' salary. Leo agreed to the contract. It was accepted. We were convinced it was a good agreement for Financial Fair Play, but it wasn't accepted by La Liga.
Negotiations with Leo Messi have ended. We can't register Messi because of La Liga's rules. They are not flexible with us on salary limit. We have an agreement with Leo, but we can't register him. Leo will now look at other options. We had a deadline.
We had an agreement with Messi, and he was helping the club. He made it easy. We had an agreement with Messi and he was helping the club; he made it easy. We had a total agreement and we can't register. Yesterday we spoke with Leo and his father Jorge about this limit we had from La Liga.
We had phone conversations every single day with La Liga and we thought they were prepared to accept Messi's contract. So we have to look at the reality and we can't proceed with Messi's contract, we can't put Barca at risk.
Leo Messi is not happy. He wanted to stay in Barcelona, as we wanted to keep Messi here, but we can't change the reality now. I wish Leo the best wherever he will go as the next club.
Laporta Press Conference
The Argentine is looking at his options going into the new season, but PSG is the most likely favorites to sign Lionel Messi.
