Barca fans ‘devastated’ at Messi exit, one files legal complaints

Reuters | Barcelona

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Barcelona fans gathered outside Lionel Messi’s house yesterday and spoke of their sadness at the club’s greatest player leaving after 21 years, while Paris St Germain fans eagerly awaited his arrival in the French capital.

One Barca member filed complaints with a French court and with the European Commission to try to block any move by PSG to sign Messi, according to documents seen by Reuters yesterday.

The 34-year-old on Sunday bid farewell to the club he has spent his entire career at and confirmed that he was talking with the Paris club over a possible move. There were no signs of movement around Messi’s house in the hills of the wealthy Barcelona district of Castelldefels yesterday, however, where fans waited to catch a glimpse of the player. “I feel devastated,” said Cristian Garcia, wearing a Barca shirt with Messi’s name and number 10 on the back.

“To see a player that I have always followed, who is an example for me, to see him leave now brings me a lot of pain,” Messi said he had agreed to a 50% pay cut in order to stay at Barca and sign a new contract but was unable to finalise the deal due to the Spanish league’s financial control rules and the club’s debts, which total more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion).

La Liga said last Wednesday it had secured a private equity injection of 2.7 billion euros from firm CVC, with the funds to be shared among the clubs in return for 10% of the league’s revenue.

It had been believed this would allow Barcelona to get the Messi deal done, but after Real Madrid rejected the proposal and said they would take legal action against La Liga, Barca also came out against it. “I don’t think the club has done enough to make him stay, I think it was in the club’s hands to make him stay, beyond the money,” said Barca and Argentina fan Gonzalo Moreno.

Legal complaint

In the Barcelona member’s legal complaints, shared by the fan’s lawyer, the member claims that French football authorities have failed to enforce their own financial fair play (FFP) rules in order to help PSG become a force in European football.

Barcelona, like their main La Liga rivals Real Madrid, are fully owned by their subscription-paying members known as “socios”. The FFP rules notably forbid top European soccer clubs to pay their playing squads an excessive share of their total revenues, according to the complaints, which also state that the transfer of Messi to PSG would breach the code. PSG and the French football league did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.