La Liga president, Javier Tebas, has made some extraordinary statements saying that Barcelona could have kept Lionel Messi if they really wanted to. Even though the Catalans refused to sign the CVC firm deal, Tebas is confident that the former European kings could have kept their evergreen legend if they did not sign new players. The arrival of Memphis Depay, Sergio Aguero and Eric Garcia might have been free but overall cost the club a lot in weekly wages. The president claims that had Laporta avoided these transfers, he would have been able to afford Messi even without the CVC deal.
Currently, only four clubs in the La Liga are not part of the CVC deal. This deal would have granted the clubs approximately 270 million euros which would have been enough to keep Messi for a while. However, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao and another unnamed club decided not to be a part of the deal. Joan Laporta had previously stated that he did not agree to the deal as he did not feel comfortable mortgaging the club’s television rights for the next 50 years.
Barcelona could have kept Lionel Messi if they wanted to claims Tebas
Tebas had always maintained that Barca could have kept Messi had the president of the club accepted the deal. In an interview with COPE, the president said that Laporta was even ready to accept the deal at one point but then backed out due to pressure from Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Perez. He said in the interview,
"“I had dinner at Laporta’s house and he agreed to sign the CVC agreement, I didn’t know if Messi could renew because of that, but later I got a call [from Laporta]. ‘Can we accelerate the CVC deal? The kid [Messi] is getting nervous.”Source ESPN"
However, even though the deal did not go through, Tebas claims that had Laporta not signed new players and reduced the current player’s wages, Messi would still be in a Catalan shirt. Laporta however, has maintained that in order to follow La Liga regulations they had to let go of the Argentine.
No one wanted to see the player leave, not the La Liga and definitely not Barcelona. Messi brought in huge sponsorships and viewerships for the league and the club thus, there must have been some huge misunderstandings or disagreements between the club and the league. As for now however, we cannot dwell on the past and we must keep on moving forwards. Barca are still actively fighting for trophies and they must make the best use out of their immensely talented youngsters.
Should Laporta have kept Lionel Messi instead of signing Aguero, Depay and Garcia?