The thought of #Messi playing in the EPL excites us all. We love football, it answers a (stupid) question whether or not he can cut it in England, Stoke midweeks and all that. Its great. A fantasy becoming reality, like me stepping up from my home league to the Old Trafford bench

That’s why we love Fantasy Football, it lets us dream.

The thing about good dreams, inevitably there’s always an annoying alarm that goes off to snap you out of it. You hate that alarm, but it’s necessary. I am that alarm my @FantraxEPL friends.

Thread:

I could go into arguments, views, give my opinion on it all. But my intro to this thread tells you what I think, from here on, I’m going to state you the facts as I understand them as someone who studied contract law. Clean and simple, easy to understand. Lets begin.

1. Messi has a contract with Barcelona which runs until June 2021.
2. Messi ‘had’ a option in his contract that stated he could exercise an exit out of the contract June 2020, should he have chose to.
2a. Messi camp argues June 2020/end of 19/20 season is same thing. It is not.

2b. Football contracts must have an end date, they can not simply conclude ‘end of season’. This protects the players interests too. Contracts can not be vague on such integral details such as start and end date.
3. Messi has a release clause of €700M.

4. La Liga player contracts MUST include a release clause for the contract to be valid, without one, the contract is null and void.
5. Messi camp argues special circumstances (COVID-19) pushed end of season from June to August. Option to exercise a release from contract should

5cont. remain. Contract does not include such language, eg. ‘Should the end of the 19/20 season end after June 30, player can exercise option to leave at the seasons end, whenever that happens to be’.
5a. Both parties must abide by the language used in the written contract.

6.Bartomeu, current President of FC Barcelona. Barcelona elections are to be held March 2021. His opposition for this election is Victor Font.
6a. Should a Barca President’s term in charge end with the club budget in deficit, the President must pay the difference from his pocket.

6b. The budget is currently in deficit. Bartomeu will have to pay millions (one assumes he does not have) should he step down.
7. Victor Font intends to hire former player Xavi as coach should he succeed Bartomeu

7b. Messi is said to want such an outcome, thus, it is in his interest for Font to win the upcoming elections. He would stay if Font was President. The problem is Bartomeu.

8. Bartomeu is not willing to sell as he would be crucified for allowing Messi to go. Should Messi leave in a situation Bartomeu has no control over, like end of 20/21, after elections he is likely to lose. He can rightfully claim ‘Messi was a Barca player end of my reign’

Quick recap. Bartomeu won’t resign because it will send him bankrupt. Messi DOES have a contract. He could have exercised an exit in June and did not. His current contract is still valid. An Impasse. Lets continue.

9. Should Messi take Barca to court, both legal teams will scurry to find precedent (a legal case with similar attributes, and what the ruling was), the precedent is the law itself, a judge is likely to give the same verdict as in the precedent.

9b. Should no precedent be found (likely as it is our first pandemic for decades), the two parties go in front of a judge. Whichever the outcome, the likely result is the loser requests the case to be heard in front of the CAS tribunal for reviewal.

9c. This is not an overnight process, you’re talking months in the best scenario. Messi would only be eligible to play for Barcelona, as, unless the court says otherwise, his contract is valid

9d. He either does a U-turn and plays for Barcelona during this court process, or sits out, and refuses to play. Should he sit out whilst under contract, club can choose not to pay him, as he is not fulfilling his side of the contract: To play football for FC Barcelona

10. Another outcome, both parties agree out of court on a fee that they are satisfied with and Man City sign Messi....(see 8)

11. Another outcome: Socios (the members of FC Barcelona) vote for a special exemption, to allow Bartomeu to step down without having to pay the budget deficit. Also, won’t happen overnight or easily.

Conclusion. Bartomeu is the villain with law on his side and all the leverage. Messi the hero, does not have the law on his side. His only leverage is that of his standing and importance in the club.

He intends to use public pressure of him leaving to another club to force Bartomeu to step down (see 6a-6b).

Messi is not in control of the situation, Barcelona FC is. Should he leave, it will be because they allow him to. (See 3)

OG