What will LaLiga take into account when evaluating Messi's Barça return?

What will LaLiga take into account when evaluating Messi's Barça return?

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The league must give the green light to Barcelona signing the Argentine this summer

FC Barcelona are preparing a viability plan for LaLiga with one goal in mind: to make Lionel Messi's return a reality. The desire of the Blaugrana and the Argentine star to reunite will only be possible if the entity presided over by Javier Tebas approves the operation financially. Until the leagie do not give their OK to Barça's planning, the club will not be able to transfer a formal offer to the Paris Saint-Germain player.

Many Barcelona fans are probably wondering how it can be that the Catalan club is considering the incorporation of Messi at a time when they are suffering problems to register the new contracts of Gavi and Ronald Araujo -- and also have the renewal of Alejandro Balde as another priority. It is also difficult to understand why LaLiga, whose regulations prevented the formalisation of the Messi deal in 2021 "because of economic and structural obstacles," would now authorise the signing of the Argentine.

Before 30 April, Barça -- like all other clubs -- must present a current picture of their financial situation, the moves they plan to make in the summer and their budget for next season. LaLiga will analyse the situation and set the Blaugrana's salary cap. In the event that they are once again in excess of the sporting costs limit, they will no longer have to go to the market with the famous 1/4 rule; in the autumn, LaLiga eliminated this rule and established another more flexible one, that of 40% (for every €10 million saved or raised, you can spend €4m).

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Although the proportion is less restrictive, according to 'RAC1' Barça would need to be able to sign up freely -- without this limit -- to achieve Messi's return. And, even if they were to achieve this and the Argentine agreed to arrive as a free agent and with a significant salary reduction, the operation would have to pass another filter, that of LaLiga's corporate general manager, Javier Gómez. He and two other people make up the validation body which, together with a valuation committee, is responsible for setting the value of the players and determining whether the proposed contracts fit with reality.

Key week

According to the aforementioned media outlet, factors such as age (36 in Messi's case by the summer), individual awards and prominence in the last season are very important in this analysis. There are, in total, 10 elements to take into account, although it should be noted that the last one, "any other situation that is justified and accredited", leaves everything very much open to interpretation. The aim of this exhaustive study is to prevent clubs from diluting the emoluments of their players in other types of payments in order to circumvent the rules of financial fair play.

The final stages of April, then, will not only be very important for the achievement of the LaLiga title. While Xavi Hernández's team try to beat Atlético Madrid, Rayo Vallecano and Real Betis to take a definitive step towards the championship, Barça's sporting management and board of directors will be doing the necessary 'juggling' to be able to undertake the desired reinforcements, not just Messi, for the coming season.

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