”I told him two days ago. I reached the conclusion that we had to say enough. We couldn’t do it.”Those are the words of Barcelona’s president Joan Laporta that tarnished all the hopes of possible Leo Messi’s stay at Catalan side despite yesterday’s shocking news.In a wholehearted hour-long press conference held at Camp Nou, Laporta said it’s dreadful for FCB to part ways with one of the worlds best players ever, but that it was an inevitable outcome. Why?Lionel Messi’s run at Barcelona. 🐐 numbers. pic.twitter.com/po7IumkALm— B/R Football (@brfootball) August 5, 2021 As per Laporta, the club wanted Messi to stay, he cheered for the same, but Barca’s dreadful financial situation, alongside stringent LaLiga regulations, prevented them from reaching an agreement.The era has just ended.”Messi tried to make it easy for us in negotiations. The first offer was two years of salary to be paid in five years. When we thought that was allowed in the fair play regulations, the cash criteria came into play, and it’s not allowed here, but it is in other countries,” continued Laporta and added:##NAJAVA_MECA_5740622##”I don’t want to generate false hope, and during negotiations, we have known that the player has other offers. And there was a time limit because LaLiga starts shortly and for him as well because he needs time.”Leo deserves everything. He proves he loves Barca. He has his roots in Barcelona, and if he would allow me a personal thought, I’m sad. But I am convinced we have done the best in the interests of Barcelona.””We want to thank him for all he has done. But the club goes over players and presidents. ”An investment of that volume for the contract of Messi was risky. We wanted to assume those risks, but when we realised the actual situation after the audit, it meant we would have put the club at significant risk,” Laporta pointed out.❝𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗯 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴.❞ — @JoanLaportaFCB pic.twitter.com/hjJ5XY05ok— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) August 6, 2021 Furthermore, Barca’s man in charge accused his predecessor Josep Maria Bertomeu of the horrific financial debt the club has fallen into during his presidency.”What we inherited is awful, dreadful. The salary mass is 110 per cent of the income of the club! We don’t have any margin in terms of salary.”We knew that when we got to the club. But I have to say, when we got to the club, after the first conclusions of the audit and our analysis, those numbers are a lot worse than the ones we initially exposed to us. It means the losses are more elevated than we had expected.”It’s all very sad, but we have 122 years of history, and we have always come through,” concluded he.
