Football news - Why can Barcelona not play Lionel Messi even if he plays for them for free?

During Lionel Messi’s press conference to announce his departure from Barcelona, the departing Argentine repeatedly made it clear that the root cause of it all was La Liga rules, not any monetary dispute between the two sides.

There have been suggestions, perhaps more styled as accusations, that had Messi really loved Barcelona as he or others claimed, then he simply could have played for the club for free. But in fact that barely skims the surface of the problems facing the club when it comes to forcing through a new deal, and the wider problems facing president Joan Laporta.

With La Liga’s financial rules to help the concept of Financial Fair Play, clubs cannot register new players if they pay their squad more than 70% of their turnover. With Messi’s proposed new deal, that sum would have exceeded 100%, and even without it, it stands at 95%.

Because Messi’s contract expired, Barcelona argue he would no longer be considered a player who is already registered with the club - which means that he cannot be tied to a theoretically unaffordable deal because his registration would have to be done as a new player, in principle.

La Liga have been assigned the blame as a result of this obstacle, but it is far from certain if this argument holds sway. If it is the case, then Barcelona are in far more trouble than simply having to let Messi go. They have three players to register, after all.

Manchester City have sent Sergio Aguero and Eric Garcia on their way to Spain, for nothing, and Lyon’s Memphis Depay is also on their books after quitting Lyon at the end of his contract. But regardless, these players are useless to them if they cannot play for them in a professional setting.

That is why reports of Barcelona’s economic problems are more and more convincing. They do not need to tighten their belts - they need to panic. How they can reduce their wage expenditure is hard to fathom. For all the coronavirus-related pay cuts, more apparently are needed...to the extent that big-name players are available if only someone will take them.

Antoine Griezmann cost £120 million when he arrived from Atletico Madrid, but he has been essentially offered up to the world, particularly his former club, if only he will leave and stop needing to be paid. He is not the only one for the chopping block. Samuel Umtiti, Miralem Pjanic, Martin Braithwaite, and - realistically - anyone who is subject of a reasonable bid - will have to be sold because otherwise their big three signings will end up as Gaudi trinkets. It is not just those four who have failed to sufficiently impress - there is also Ousmane Dembele, the man due to replace Neymar when he went to PSG.

The solution? Well, there isn’t one. Unless a brand-new income stream comes from nowhere, or an accounting trick can be proposed and believed, it is more that Barcelona are back where they have always threatened to be over the last two or three decades: ruin. The way back is for Barca to pull off the firesale as best they can, rely on the paucity of equality in La Liga, and hope that in three years time their bottom line is much better received. Above all else, they probably need the vaccine to work. For fans to come back, for advertisers to have something to sell. They need to become a product without Messi. That had always, eventually, worked before him. It is now time to discover if it works after him, too.