La Liga shoots down all the speculations revolving around Barcelona’s Lionel Messi by saying that he cannot leave Barcelona on free, as his release clause has to be paid in full before leaving.
Earlier this week Lionel Messi has sent a notification to the club regarding a clause on his contract that he wishes to activate, which allows him to leave at the end of each season for free.
But apparently the clause had to be activated before the end of June, but the La Liga season got extended due to COVID19 situation.
Messi’s lawyers are expecting that Barcelona will honour the contract given the circumstances for not activating the clause.
However, La Liga reiterated what Barcelona said that Messi’s release clause has to be paid in full before he can leave Barcelona.
A La Liga statement read:
“With regard to the different interpretations (some of which are contradictory) relating to the current contractual situation of FC Barcelona footballer Lionel Andres Messi that have been published across various media outlets in recent days, having analysed the player’s contract with the club, La Liga would like to clarify the following.
“The contract is currently valid and contains a release clause which is applicable should Lionel Messi decide to trigger the early unilateral termination of the contract, in accordance with article 16 of Royal Decree 1006/1985 of 26 June, which regulates the special employment status that professional sportspeople have.
“In compliance with the applicable regulations and protocol that apply in such instances, La Liga will not carry out the prior visa-release process for the player to be unregistered from the (Royal Spanish Football) Federation if the sum in the aforementioned clause has not been paid beforehand.”
La Liga’s statement comes hours after Messi earlier in the day missed the mandatory coronavirus test before the start of the 2020-21 season training, which is supposed to be the first training session with the new coach Ronald Koeman on Monday.
Messi’s representatives are supposed to meet club personals later this week to talk about the current situation regarding the player. It is believed that Messi still wants to negotiate his release with the club hierarchy personally.
However, If the board could not convince the player to extend his contract with the club, he will be in the market at the end of 2020/21 season as a free agent, and premier league club Manchester City who already has Pep Guardiola as their Coach and Messi close friend Sergio Aguero is said to be favourites for grabbing his services.
It will be interesting to watch what will be the next course of action for the club in the coming days.
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