La Liga issue emphatic response to claim Messi buyout clause no longer exists

La Liga have issued a brief statement to completely deny claims from Lionel Messi’s camp that the Barcelona captain no longer had a €700million buyout clause in his contract.

Messi’s father Jorge had insisted that the clause had expired in a statement released on behalf of the Barca captain on Friday.

The Messi camp had hoped that the removal of the buyout clause would mean that the Argentinean could join a new club on a free transfer or for a fee much less than the clause, with Manchester City still leading the race to tempt him from the Nou Camp this summer.

In spelling out why he felt the cause was no longer valid, Jorge Messi wrote:

“1 – We don’t know what contract they’ve seen and analysed to back up claims only the buyout clause is applicable even if the player decides to unilaterally terminate his contract after the 2019/20 season.

“2 – This must be a major error on their part. As is written in the clause 8.2.3.6 of the contract signed by the club and the player:

“This compensation won’t be applied when the player has decided to unilaterally end his contract after the conclusion of the 2019-20 season.

“It’s obvious the compensation of 700 million euros, as mentioned in the previous 8.2.3.5 clause, can’t be applied at all.”

However, it took La Liga just minutes to respond to the claims as they clarified that the clause was still valid in Messi’s contract.

“The €700m release clause exists and is absolutely valid,” said the league in a statement.

“Their interpretation of the contract is decontextualised and far from the literality of the same.” 

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