Barcelona chief executive Oscar Grau has admitted that it will be difficult to draw up a new contract for Argentinian star Lionel Messi due to imposed sanctions.
The forward's contract expires in a year-and-a-half, leaving the club with just enough time to tie things up. But La Liga spending rules, according to Grau, have made things very complicated.
note: suarez has taken a dig at Barca CEO Oscar Grau, who said earlier today that Messi's renewal issue needs to be dealt with common sense.
Barcelona have already secured the futures oftheir other two top talents Luis Suarez and Neymar. Both players have signed deals running up to 2021, and are now earning around€25m-a-year, after tax.
Messi earns€22m after tax, and the club are more than willing to put him on par with the other members of MSN, but Grau says that they can't surpass 70 per cent of their budget on wages.
La Liga agrees spending caps with each club at the beginning of every season, and are seeing to it that all clubs only spend a certain percentage of their budgets on player wages.
Barcelona has to analyse this situation with a cold head and common sense,� Grau said, viaThe Guardian. Barça can't exceed 70% of its budget on wages and therefore we have to make the numbers add up.�
The club's budget for this season is€695m. They currently pay the highest wages in Spain and are second only to Manchester United on the world scale. Thelatest publication of the Global Sports Salary Surveyreport that their players earn£6.1m per year on average.
Grau has suggested that Barcelona could sell players and strengthen their commercial reachin order to raise funds.
One option is to increase our revenues, as our economic strategy forecasts,� Grau said. We want to have the best players around, but perhaps we have to prioritise.
The club wants the best player in the world to stay at Barça. I would like to ease the concerns of club members and supporters but we have to use common sense.�