BARCELONA/PARIS, (Reuters) – Lionel Messi appeared in no hurry to leave his home in Barcelona yesterday as fans gathered outside spoke of their sadness at the departure of the club’s greatest player and Paris St Germain supporters clamoured for his arrival.
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 Argentine 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 any imminent exit from the player’s house in the hills of the wealthy Barcelona district of Castelldefels yesterday, however.
Messi was glimpsed in the afternoon in swimming trunks.
“He’s clearly still here, looking very relaxed indeed,” Sky Sports News reporter Gary Cotterill told British television viewers in a live update from outside the house.
Barcelona fans were still coming to terms with events.
“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 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.
Messi said on Sunday that PSG was “a possibility” but that he had not yet signed any deal.
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.
Messi said he wants to carry on playing for as long as possible, adding he still harbours ambitions to win another Champions League trophy.
“We’re waiting for a legend, the legend that is Leo Messi,” said PSG fan Mehmet Sen, who had been waiting at the gates to Paris’ Le Bourget airport since 2 a.m. for a glimpse of the star.
