Barcelona could have kept Messi if they didn't sign Aguero, Depay - Tebas
Barcelona could have kept Lionel Messi if they hadn't bought Memphis Depay and Sergio Aguero, according to LaLiga president Javier Tebas.
Messi, 34, joined PSG on a free transfer in the summer after Barca, which is in debt to the tune of €1.4 billion, was unable to afford to renew his contract.
In August, Barcelona president Joan Laporta stated that the club might have maintained Messi if they had agreed to LaLiga's agreement to sell 10% of its business to CVC Capital Partners.
Barca would have received roughly €270 million from the deal, but they refused to sign it since it would have mortgaged the club's future, according to Laporta.
Tebas claims that the deal would have allowed Barcelona to extend Messi's contract at Camp Nou, and that they would have been able to do so if they hadn't brought in Memphis and Aguero earlier in the summer.
"I had dinner at Laporta's house and he agreed to sign the CVC agreement," Tebas, who supposes Real Madrid president Florentino Perez forced Barca to pull out of the deal, told Cope.
"I didn't know if Messi could renew because of that, but later I got a call [from Laporta]. 'Can we accelerate the CVC deal? The kid [Messi] is getting nervous,' he revealed.
"I told him: 'The day it comes out, Florentino is going to try and burst it.' And Laporta told me: 'No, no, I have character.' Florentino's behind it all, I have no doubt.
"There was an agreement that if [Barca] signed the CVC deal, they could have put 15% of the money towards signing players. In my opinion, they could have signed Messi.
"Laporta signed players like Memphis, Aguero... if he didn't sign those players, Messi could continue."
Barcelona, along with Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, declined to sign the CVC contract. The plan was accepted by the other 17 top-flight clubs in Spain, who were rewarded with an immediate cash influx.
In exchange, CVC will receive a 10% piece of LaLiga's revenue, including television rights, for the next 50 years, but will not receive a cut of Barca, Madrid, or Athletic's earnings.
Barca's LaLiga spending budget for the season has been reduced to just €97 million as a result of not completing the deal and after losing €481 million previous season.
That maximum was established at about €300 million last season, and it was set at over €600 million in 2019-20, prior to the pandemic. The spending cap applies to first-team salaries, academy costs, and transfer amortisation payments, among other things.
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