Leo Messi wants to return to Barça and the club is finalizing the plan to make him a formal offer

2023-04-20 20:01:15

BarcelonaOn Wednesday, after the extraordinary assembly of the League for Joan Laporta to give explanations about the Negreira case, Javier Tebas spoke about a hypothetical return of Leo Messi to Barça. “Hopefully. For the League it would be great. They couldn’t register him now, but a lot can happen and there’s still time,” said the president of the football union, who also declared himself a “fan” of the argentine Tebas, however, has already warned that they are still waiting for the Blaugrana entity to submit a new feasibility plan so that Messi’s fit is possible within the rules of the fair play financier of the League: “We will not make concessions”.

The document that Tebas referred to is the budget that Barça estimates it will have next season. From here, the League will determine in a period that can extend for weeks if the Blaugrana entity continues to exceed in sports salaries. Currently, the club’s wage bill exceeds the threshold allowed by the League by 200 million euros. Barça is finalizing all the documentation to present it to the employer and prove that it will no longer be overpaid. The window to present the budget for the 2023-24 academic year (or the pre-budget, as it is also often called) runs out in just over a week: on April 30. Barça sources consulted by ARA state that the club is finalizing its proposal, but has not yet presented it.

The pre-budget that must be validated by the League is the previous step so that the club can know what margin of action it will have this summer and, therefore, what formal offer it can present to Messi. The Argentine star, for the moment, still has on the table the option of extending his bond for one more season with PSG or accepting the gold bath (up to 400 million euros) with which he seeks to tempt- the Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia.

Messi, with whom Barça has been approaching positions for weeks and who maintains contact and friendship with Xavi Hernández, is waiting for Barca’s proposal to finish sealing his future. It is not expected that it will be because of a question of how much Barça will receive – “like Busquets, if Leo signs it will not be for money, but for a sentimental matter”, say sources familiar with the negotiation -, but to have the guarantee that he will be able be registered The star of Rosario does not want to go through the trance that his farewell entailed, reluctantly, in August 2021.

The documentation that Barça presents to the League

In order to make a formal offer to Messi, Barça needs the League to accept its feasibility plan. In other words, give it the green light after reviewing the budgets of the Barcelona club for the next year. In this pre-budget, the management asks all First and Second Division clubs for four budgets: one for income and expenses, one for investments and disinvestments (sales and exits), one for financing and one for treasury. From here, the League will say if Barça is at a “point of balance” to be able to go to the market without having to be subject to the 40% rule, which was previously the rule of 1- 4. The new regulations (approved by the League this season) mean that, in case of excess, for every 10 million euros saved, four can be spent. Instead, before, for every four million saved, clubs could only spend one. It’s a slightly looser ratio.

Barça’s objective, and this is how it will be conveyed in its documentation, is to stop being excessive in the expenditure of sports salaries (including those of the players and those of the coaching staff) in order to be able to sign without being limited by the rule of the 40% In this way he will be able to present a formal offer to Messi. For this reason, the Blaugrana entity will expose the salary arrangement to the League in order to activate the return of the current PSG player. The Argentine ends his contract with the French; therefore, he would come at zero cost and accepting a significant reduction in his salary.

Despite the fact that Barça wants to make Messi’s salary subject to different variables – as they already tried in 2021 to retain him -, this would not serve to overcome the financial control of the League. For many years it had been played with a small fixed and easy-to-comply variables in order to make a small cheat in the accounting aspect and thus avoid the salary limitations. But the financial control regulations of the League were adapted, some time ago, to avoid situations of this kind. All things considered, Barça must demonstrate to the League that this summer it will sell players, make cash and reduce the wage bill. Not only to dream of Messi’s return, but also to carry out urgent operations such as signing the new contracts of Araujo and Gavi, as well as being able to renew Balde.