Barcelona president, Joan Laporta, has claimed that LaLiga’s financial fair play rules are behind the delay for Lionel Messi’s new deal.
Messi is officially a free agent and without a club for the first time in his career, as his contract with Barca expired on Thursday.
LaLiga president, Javier Tebas, has warned the Catalan club they must make cutbacks to be able to complete a new contract for Messi.
“We want him to stay and Leo wants to stay; everything is on track.
“We still have the financial fair play [issue] to sort out. We are in the process of finding the best solution for all parties,” Laporta told Onda Cero on Thursday.
Barca had the biggest salary cap in Spain before the COVID-19 pandemic at €671 million per year.
But as of March, that had been almost halved to €347m.