Thread by @infosfcb

THREAD | ⬇️
Everything that happened in Joan Laporta's press conference in a chronological order.

RTs and likes appreciated❤️

Awaiting the president's arrival... ⌛

President Laporta is here, the press conference begins...

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “Good morning everyone, I am here to explain the situation we have reached in the negotiations with Leo Messi. First of all, I would like to say that the inheritance that we have received is awful.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “The salary mass is 110% of the total income of the club. We don't have any margin in terms of the salary. The rules and regulations of La Liga is regulate by a financial fair play and we don't have any margin.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “we knew that when we got to the club, but I have to say that when we got to the club, the numbers that have been presented to us after the first conclusions of the audit and our analysis, those numbers are a lot worse than what we were exposed to initially.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “The losses are a lot more elevated than what we expected, what we're spending is a lot more than we expected and the current contracts mean that we have this salary mass of great magnitude and it allows no margin. This is all tied to fair play.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “the financial fair play in La Liga doesn't follow the criteria of cash. This is the reason why we couldn't fit in the first contract that we had agreed to with Leo Messi and I can explain to you if that's what you'd like.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “in order to have that fair play, Barça had to agree to an operation that would affect the club for the next 50 years in terms of TV rights. I can't make a decision that will affect the club for the next 50 years.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “The club is over 100 years old and it's above everyone and everything; even above the best player of the world, the EST player who's been with us over the last few years and we will always thank him for everything he's done for us.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “the club goes over players, coaches, presidents. I wanted to make this little introduction and I'll answer all of your questions.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “the reason why we have decided that we have to get to this point is because of the economical situation of the club and that an investment of that volume with the contract of Leo Messi was risky.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “we wanted to assume those risks, all of us in the board of directors, but when we have realised what the real situation of the club is after the audit, it meant that we would have put the club in great risk.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “The salary mass has a great deal to do with that, there's a great margin after the calamitous situation that was all down to the previous board of administration.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “If we terminate contracts, that also has its risks and the only way to have that salary margin right now was to accept an operation that we don't think is interesting for Barça. It's an operation that puts the club at risk for the next 50 years.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “we understand that we can't do that and I want to end this introduction saying that Leo wanted to stay at Barça, we wanted him to stay. In fact he wanted to stay and that was the first step that was made, that was a key factor.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “I want to thank everyone who has been in the negotiations both on behalf of the club and on behalf of Leo, we've been negotiating during the last few months with all the intricacies of a negotiation.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “a lot of aspects had to be negotiated: Leo's contract needed to be be compatible with fair play, it needed to be of a certain duration, because he's the best player in the world and he has other offers of course.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “After all of this, there comes a moment where you need to say it's enough, you need to analyse it with a cold head and look at the numbers. And in La Liga, we have to abide by the rules, we think that they can be more flexible but that's not an excuse.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “we knew the rules and regulations but we couldn't abide by them because of the inheritance we have. Leo deserves everything; he's proven that he loves Barça, he has his roots in Barcelona. I'm sad, but I'm convinced we've done the best for FC Barcelona.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “now we'll proceed to the questions.”

What is the legacy of Leo Messi at Barça?

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “Leo's legacy is excellent, he has made history. He's the player with most success in the history of the club, he's been the reference of an era which has been splendid; the best era of Barça's history up till today.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “I hope we can overcome this situation, a new era starts now. There'll be a before & after Leo as there was with other great players in the history of Barça. I wasn't born for the history of Kubala but I was here during Johan's time and Leo is along those lines.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “Leo has given us lots of joy and sporting success, lots of images that will go down in history and we need to be eternally thankful to him.”

is this situation truly irreversible? Can the situation be overturned and Messi stays at Barcelona?

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “i don't want to generate false hope, during the course of negotiations, we knew that Messi had other offers and there was a time limit both for us and Messi.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “messi also needs to be given time, if fair play continues to be rigid, the player also needs some time to see what he'll do, evaluate his situation and look at other options.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “We've been negotiating for 2 months and we've gone through different stages. The first agreement was for 2 years that would be paid over 5 years and Leo agreed to that. He was always present in the negotiations and tried his best to make it easy for us.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “when we realised that this wouldn't be possible because of fair play rules, the criteria of cash came into play, it is not allowed here whereas in other countries, it is. So it's all part of a process.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “La Liga also had its process because there are other clubs also want the rules and regulations to be abided by.”

🗣️Joan Laporta: “then we agreed to 5 year contract which was also accepted by Leo even though we were all thinking of 2 more years, we all agreed though. We were all thinking of 2 years and if he wanted more, we could sit and negotiate but 2 years at Barça is what we all wanted.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “we wanted the post Messi era that is starting today to start in 2 years...”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “we all wanted to enjoy his talent, his magic, playing at Barça but at the moment it can't be.

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “We thought the 5 year contract would be allowed by the fair play regulations, but after a technical analysis by the La Liga comission, we found out that this contract wouldn't be valid within the regulations.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “Now the only way was to accept la Liga's operation that wasn't in Barça's interest: we were going to receive some money but we think that accepting that money would affect our TV rights for the future and it's something that we can't accept.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “Barça goes above players, coaches and presidents.”

Is the salary mass a problem? Did the other players not accept a reduction in salary?

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “the ratio that we have in the salary limit is 4:1, so to bring in €25m in salary we have to release €100m, that's a lot of players and a lot of reduction.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “it's the direction that football is working intensely in terms of trying to liberate that salary mass... we've reached agreements with some players and with others who we're working with, it's not an easy process.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “in the current contracts, some players had already accepted a salary reduction, they'd already restructured it in previous negotiations and it's not easy... Maybe we'll have to make other decisions but it won't be a guarantee to be the right solution.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “It's a hard and risky situation for the club and it all requires time. What is true is that what we were counting on for Leo, the salary mass would've been 110% compared to the income of the club and that's not sustainable.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “that's why we'll continue to work along these lines, the salary mass has us tied right now and there were amendments that were made in the past that restrict that situation right now.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “People ask why can we sign Agüero, Emerson, Memphis... These are players that have come to Barça accepting certain conditions in terms of salary... We have to thank them for that.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “the arrival of one of these players is incomparable to what it would've meant to formalise those agreements we've reached with Messi in terms of fair play.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “I don't want to create false hope, we were brought here because of the salary limit and la Liga not wanting to widen that salary limit, and to do it, we'd have to accept the operation. I insist that we can't affect our broadcasting rights for half a century.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “there are other aspects of this agreement like selling 10% of La Liga rights that we just don't see very clearly, so we can't create false hope right now. Going from here, our motivation is... Great. We're more motivated that ever, players coaching staff...”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “there will be demands on us and we're up for the challenge, we're more motivated than ever for Barça to continue to be successful and give us all the joy we need without Messi.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “it's obviously sad that the situation is what it is with Messi, covid and we can't pay homage to Messi in a way that we would've wanted to do in 2 years with fans in the stands... It could've been done in a nicer way but now the circumstances are what they are.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “when you think about the decision being made, that Barça is above everything & preserving the club's interests, we have 122 years of history and we've been through everything. Now with more motivation than ever, we want the post Messi era to be successful.”

Do you think you've made false promises to the fans? Do you feel responsible for those electoral promises?

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “I said it several times that we'd do everything possible for Messi to stay at Barça within the economical situation with the club.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “we reached an agreement with Messi but we weren't able to formalise it because of the economical situation that the club is going through; which means that we can't inscribe the player under that agreement because of the salary limit.”

Is anyone guilty of this situation?

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “We've had way less than 6 months because the audit numbers just came out. The numbers that were presented to us initially compared the numbers now makes the situation even worse than what we expected.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “We've gone from bad to worse and the first conclusions of the audit confirm that. I had said that the negotiations were going well because it seemed La Liga was going to be more flexible with fair play and because Messi behaved in an excellent manner.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “The players always made it easy for us so that's why we were saying that things were going well but at one point we had to say it's enough and in order to have fair play we need to do this or we need to do something that would put the club at risk.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “we couldn't keep going with this, and we needed to make a decision and that's what we did.”

The transfer window ends on 31st, can the situation with players like coutinho, Umtiti, Griezmann, Dembélé be addressed? Are we trying to put pressure on La Liga?

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “if we make this operation with la Liga, we'll receive cash and we'd have 50% more salary mass.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “however, that doesn't make the situation better, it doesn't fix it. Then we'd have to address a series of contract that we can't break unilaterally because it's risky. Given the club's situation, with great sadness, we have to make this decision.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “we can't just keep prolonging the agony, we have the Gamper match this Sunday and we're playing Real Sociedad on the 15th and for Leo, we didn't have a margin, a limit date was talked about but we thought it'd all be resolved by the end of July.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “I think it's best to make this decision now, which is advanced by 2 years...”

When did you know that this was going to happen? When did you tell Messi's father?

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “2 days ago. I reached the conclusion that we had to say enough and that we can do it and yesterday we had our last conversations with Leo's father. The negotiations were intense”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “we can't say that we didn't know about fair play, we didn't know about salary limit, we thought we'd get more flexibility but it was extremely difficult because of the inheritance...”

If the Messi contract would've set the salary mass at 110%, what is the situation now without Messi?

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “everyone is working, now we have a little bit more margin to see if a solution can be found. We're at the limit even without Leo, we don't have margin ...”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “as I said, the ratio is 4:1, that every €25m that we bring in, we have to release €100m, that's without Leo, that's why the agreement with Leo was so difficult to fit in...”

😳

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “we found a solution that was thanks to meetings and phone calls everyday, we've been talking to La Liga and we thought that they were gonna accept our proposal for this contract, but if you analysed it, it couldn't happen...”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “For it to be a reality, we had to accept the agreement that La Liga had reached with the sale of 10% of the TV rights... So anyway, our decision is that we can't put the club at risk.”

I'd like to know what the % of salary mass without Messi is now..? What did La Liga ask that made the deal impossible?

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “i can't say the % right now, we have to recalculate it... the salary mass is at 110% but we're over it even without the contract of Messi.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “La Liga asks us to abide by the rules, of course they want Leo Messi to stay in the league's but it's also true that there are clubs that want the rules to be abided by. They can't make an exception even if it means Leo is out of La Liga.”

🗣️ Joan Laporta: “we were over the allowed salary limit, that's as simple as it it. We need to move on.”