The president of LaLiga of Spain, Javier Tebas, acknowledged this Thursday that Lionel Messi’s march to Paris Saint Germain in France hurts the entity, but clarified that the presence of the star “is not essential” to guarantee the sustainability of the first division tournament in that country.
The Spanish leader admitted that the departure of the captain of the Argentine national team “was a bit traumatic” and wasted irony towards the Barcelona board: “They have very intelligent people running the club and with the latest decisions they are taking, it shows.”
LaLiga approved on Thursday an operating agreement with the CVC investment fund, in which Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlhetic Bilbao will not participate, so they will not charge the percentage corresponding to the injection of money planned for the entire competition, about 2,100 million euros approximately.
“Barcelona would have had about 275 million that did not hurt. Of that money, about 40 million could be used to retain Messi or to invest in the squad. By opposing this agreement, he will not receive anything, “Tebas explained in a virtual press conference after the Assembly that authorized the arrival of the investment by 38 positive votes against 4 negative.
The LaLiga director assured that the presiding body worked “a lot so that Messi does not leave” Spain, although it safeguarded the future of the competition by virtue of the value of audiovisual rights. “There is no clause in our audiovisual contracts that says that they are going to pay us less because Messi is not there. We recently signed an agreement with ESPN for the next 8 years and there was no such requirement. Who knows how many footballers there may be in 8 years? “, He exemplified.
“In LaLiga we always want to have the best. The stars matter, they help but they are not essential. Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi have left …“, said the leader, one of those appointed in Spain as responsible for the star’s departure to PSG.
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