Josep Maria Bartomeu has become an unpopular president for the FC Barcelona football team. The fans and club members had enough of Bartomeu when he backed on his word from an agreement made with the 33-year old football player, Lionel Messi.
According to Messi, Bartomeu had originally agreed to let him leave freely from Barcelona at any point. Reluctantly, Messi decided not to take the club to court in order to leave. Messi would also be asked to take a 70% pay cut due to the pandemic, according to Sport Life.
Photo Credit: New York Times
Financially, the club is in a grim situation due to poor decision making. They have had a loss of £90 million during their 2019-20 season. Due to the club’s setback, they plan on having Messi lead by example for the rest of the team by accepting the wage cut.
An Instagram post by Lionel Messi indicates that he and his teammates have all agreed on the pay cuts to help the club with their costs and so the employees can have 100% of their salary throughout this pandemic; as stated by CNBC.
The news of Messi wanting to leave Barcelona resulted in the fans assembling outside of the stadium. The crowd shouted for Bartomeu to step down from his presidency, believing it would persuade Messi to stay. There are others who also share the same lack of confidence in Bartomeu.
Presidential candidate Jordi Farre believes “that Messi’s request to leave Barcelona is the latest sign of the mess the club finds itself in.”
Barcelona will be holding elections for a new club president in March 2021. Farre and other members of Barcelona intend to take action now by trying to collect 16,500 signatures against Bartomeu for his “unacceptable management.” The pandemic has made it difficult for the required signatures to be obtained. It is a race against time since they only had a certain amount of days to acquire it all. Barcelona member Marc Duch revealed “we have to go door to door” due to the social distancing restrictions, as claimed by the New York Times
Messi’s frustration with a lack of management and unhappy field performance has him wanting to end his contract early. However, the contract is until 2021 and has a £700 million release clause. Manchester City is highly interested in signing Messi, they first need to figure out their finances to see if it would be possible to buy him. In the meantime, Messi has been hoping that a clause in his contract would enable him to leave for free, but the club has claimed it expired in June, according to ESPN.
Lionel Messi may consider staying longer with Barcelona depending on the results of the approaching elections. He will remain open to staying, but only if the new president will manage the club with better intentions, as reported by Caught Off Side.
