Negotiations have ENDED, blocked by LaLiga rules: Laporta on Messi

Laporta has explained on Messi's departure: there's no margin in salary mass, FFP is also blocking us! Negotiations with Leo Messi have ENDED. We can’t register Messi because of La Liga rules, they’re not flexible with us on salary limit.

Barcelona president Laporta about Messi: “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, Barça are the most important thing”.

“We can’t register the contract of Leo Messi that was agreed because of Financial Fair Play rules. Unfortunately we have received an inheritance in which we have no margin with the salary current situation”. 

“Leo Messi wanted to STAY at Barcelona, he had an agreement to stay at Barça 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 rules we can’t proceed”.

 “I’m sad but we did everything to keep Leo and he was prepared to stay at Barcelona, it was agreed. A new era starts now without Lionel Messi, we’ll 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 La Liga is starting soon... now Messi can look at other options”. 

 “We had an agreement with Messi to sign a five-years contract but paying him two years salary. Leo agreed the contract, it was ACCEPTED. We were convinced it was a good agreement for Financial Fair Play but... it wasn’t allowed by La Liga”. 

Barça president Laporta: “We’ve shaken our hands with Leo Messi. The new contract was DONE. Two years salary but paid until 2026.

It was 100% AGREED, we had to SIGN yesterday. But then La Liga rules and reality came, I told to Jorge Messi yesterday... a cold shower”. 

“Negotiations with Leo Messi have ENDED. We can’t register Messi because of La Liga rules, they’re not flexible with us on salary limit. We had 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 a total agreement and we can’t register it - 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 that they were prepared to accept Messi’s contract [agreed with Leo]. So we’ve to look at the reality and we can’t proceed with Messi contract, we can’t put Barça at risk”.

There’s no chance to re-sign Leo Messi in the next days for FC Barcelona, president Laporta says: “We can’t sell fake hopes to our fans. We have to move on. Barcelona Football Club above everything”.

“Leo Messi is NOT happy. He wanted to STAY at 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 NEXT CLUB”.

Finally, Laporta discussed the finances at the club, revealing the salary limits currently on the club:

“The ratio that we have in the salary limit is 4:1, so to bring in 25 million in salary we had to release 100 million, that’s a lot of players and a lot of reduction.”

“With some players we have reached agreements, and with others we are working with”.

“Maybe we’ll have to make other decisions but they are not a guarantee of anything.”.

“It did seem that La Liga was going to be more flexible with Fair Play”

“We thought we would get more flexibility but it was extremely difficult, but we knew of the situation”

With Messi seemingly no longer able to return to Barcelona unless massive sales are made, where could he end up?

“I spoke with Jorge Messi and Leo in the last hours... there’s no chance to continue together. We can’t go through because of the financial regulations, very sad but that’s it. New era”. 

Barça expect losses of €487m for last season.