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The words of Josep Maria Bartomeu will haunt him again in the coming weeks.
And even if they don’t form a substantial part of a legal challenge from Lionel Messi as he tries to break free from his contract with Camp Nou and possibly organize a play with Manchester City, they will be used to prick the conscience of the Barcelona president.
The owner of Barça revealed the controversial clause of Messi’s contract in an interview with Barcelona’s own television channel almost a year ago.
And in doing so, he may have inadvertently encouraged Messi’s legal team so they can remove him from his contract with Barca, which still has a year ahead of him, and make him available on a free transfer.
That would deliver him perfectly into the hands of the Blues, who can only sit back and wait to see how the dispute between Messi and Barcelona unfolds.
The exit clause written in Messi’s latest deal said he could walk away with a free transfer provided he notified the club before June 10, 2020.
Messi did not do that, but his legal team claims that the extension of the season due to the Covid-19 pandemic means that the spirit of that clause should be observed rather than the literal interpretation.
Their argument is that the date of June 10 referred to a point after the end of the season, but that the extension of the season rendered it without effect.
Spanish lawyers consider that Messi would be on difficult ground with that, and that could explain why they are likely to seek a compromise, in which they back down from a legal challenge, but Barça allows him to pay a fee that is far below Of the level. official, and hugely prohibitive, release fee of £ 630 million.
But Bartomeu’s words in September last year support Messi’s belief that the date should be viewed as nominal rather than real.
Bartomeu explained the fact that Messi had an exit clause by suggesting that it was a regular thing, intended to reward loyalty, and had also been inserted into the contracts of Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and Carles Puyol.
He said: “Leo Messi has a contract until the 2020-21 season, but the player can leave Barça before the last season.
“It is the same case as with the definitive contracts that Xavi, Puyol and Iniesta had.
“They are players who deserve that freedom and we shouldn’t worry, they are very committed to Barça.
“We want Messi to play for Barça until 2021 and beyond. We are very calm ”.
The fact that he said that Messi is one of the players who “deserve that freedom” is significant.
The June 10 date is significant if a court decided it was hard and fast, not a moving benchmark.
Bartomeu’s own words indicate that the clause was intended to give freedom to a player who has earned that respect from the club after 20 years of incredible service.
To then insist that June 10 was non-negotiable, even though the season itself spanned three months and thus made it a pointless point on the calendar, is insignificant.
Barca have entrenched themselves in their position, which is that Messi is their player and only an offer of £ 630 million will change that, and it appears they have rejected Messi’s offer to meet up and compromise.
But Bartomeu’s words – that Messi has earned the freedom to choose his own path with one year remaining on his contract – leave him looking shallow and the club mean.
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