La Liga has stepped into the Messi contract situation with Barcelona by stating that any club interested in signing the Argentine captain will have to pay the €700m release clause in his contract.
Lionel Messi told the club last week of his intention to leave the club but the club is insisting that he won’t leave on a free considering the clause in his contract.
Messi and his Lawyers believe that the clause is no longer valid given that it expired already was on the 10th of June.
Messi has a clause in his contract which allows him to leave the club for free at the end of every season but the 2019/2020 season finished in August due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
La Liga, however, in a statement released this afternoon have pulled their weight behind the Catalan giants stance on the payment of his release clause before he would be allowed to join another club;
”
SPORT
La Liga Backs Barcelona On Payment Of €700m For Messi’s Exit
La Liga has weighed into the dispute over Lionel Messi’s contract at Barcelona by stating his release clause will have to be paid if he is to leave the Nou Camp.
Messi notified Barcelona last week that he intends to walk away from the club by exercising a clause in his contract that allows him to leave for free at the end of each season.
He has consistently aired his dissatisfaction this season with the club’s performance, both on and off the pitch.
Read Also: Lionel Messi Asks To Leave Barcelona
Even though the deadline – June 10 2020 – to exercise the clause has passed, Messi’s lawyers believe Barcelona should honour it as the season had to be extended to August because of the coronavirus pandemic.
However, Barcelona insists the clause has expired and that the only way Messi will leave the club is if a buyer pays his €700m release clause.
La Liga has now backed Barcelona’s stance by releasing a statement which reads;
In relation to the different interpretations (some of them contradictory to each other) published in recent days in different media, related to the contractual situation of the player Lionel Andrés Messi with FC Barcelona, LaLiga wishes to clarify that with regards to the player’s contract with his club:
The contract is currently in force and has a “termination clause” applicable to the event that Lionel Andrés Messi decides to activate the early unilateral termination of the contract, carried out in accordance with article 16 of Royal Decree 1006/1985, of June 26, which regulates the special employment relationship of professional athletes.
In compliance with the applicable regulations, and following the corresponding procedure in these cases, LaLiga will not carry out the prior visa process for the player to be removed from the federation if they have not previously paid the amount of said clause.
This comes after Messi announced that he won’t be participating in the club’s COVID-19 test ahead of the resumption of training for the new season.
Messi’s intention to leave the club can be traced to his displeasures with the way the club is being run by the club President Josep Maria Bartomeu and it was most likely heightened by the club’s humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the semi-final of the just-concluded season.
A good number of clubs have been reported to be in the run-in for Lionel Messi but reports in Spain suggest that Manchester City are favourites to land the six-time Ballon D’or winner.
