It would all be so much easier now if everyone had just listened to Ferran Soriano in 2005 — Barcelona would have a ready-made solution for their £138 million salary-cap conundrum, Major League Soccer would have a better TV deal and Lionel Messi would have a clear path to a post-Barca American adventure.
But more conservative forces at the Nou Camp prevailed and the Catalan club’s then-commercial chief was stopped from completing a deal he had struck with MLS boss Don Garber for a New York-based version of Barcelona. Eight years later, Soriano took the idea to his new employers at Manchester City instead.
So no MLS franchise for Barcelona and now, it seems, no more Messi either. With expected losses of €487 million (£413 million) for last season, the club’s president Joan Laporta has admitted defeat in Barcelona’s attempts to register a new five-year contract worth north of £200 million for the Argentine. “The negotiation is over,” Laporta said on Friday, blaming La Liga’s financial rules and the “calamitous previous board”.
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