Chelsea
would need to sell €200m-worth of players to be able to comply with Uefa’s
financial regulations and buy Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, says Spanish
football expert Guillem Balague.
Questions have been raised in recent weeks about Messi’s future at Camp Nou,
especially following the player’s alleged falling out with Barcelona coach
Luis Enrique.
And those doubts only increased when Messi then started following Chelsea on
Instagram.
However, any club hoping to prize Messi away from Barca would firstly need
to find more than £450m in total to meet both the player’s buy-out clause
and tax in his contract, as well as his exorbitant salary.
According to Balague, due to Uefa’s Financial Fair Play Regulations Jose
Mourinho would then need to sell players to the tune of €200m in order to
bring Messi to Stamford Bridge.
“For Chelsea to actually be able to bring Messi and pay for it, they would
have to sell the players they have got for a value of €200m,” he said on
Revista de la Liga.
“So you are selling [Diego] Costa, [Eden] Hazard and [Cesc] Fabregas and you
are bring Messi.
“But even that way, Fifa will look at it and think: ‘You are selling six
guys and bringing in just one. That is not right.’ And it will be
questioned. So it is very difficult.”
Meanwhile, former Barcelona executive and current football finance expert
Esteve Calzade also thinks there are only a handful of clubs in the world
capable of affording Messi.
“Everything could happen in football,” he said. “But obviously with the new
regulations it only comes down to a very short list of teams. It is not
enough to just have a wealthy investor.
“With FFP in place it needs to be a team that can prove they can generate
revenues to pay for the cost of the deal, which is a lot of money.
“So if we are talking only about the teams that have made a profit in the
last season, then we are talking about Manchester United, Real Madrid,
Chelsea, Manchester City, who are on their way to break even and generate a
profit.”
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