FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi Viability Plan Starts To Get La Liga Approval And Has Two Vital Features: Reports

FC Barcelona’s viability plan is starting to get the green light from La Liga which will result in Lionel Messi returning to the club, according to Gerard Romero.

Barca are currently mired in debts, and have been warned by La Liga president Javier Tebas to shed €200 million ($218 million) from the wage bill if they want to buy players and register the new contracts of current stars such as Gavi and Ronald Araujo.

With Messi set to become a free agent on June 30 when his Paris Saint Germain contract expires, president Joan Laporta and sporting director Mateu Alemany have had to draw up a viability plan which shows they can make the numbers work in a potential return for their club’s greatest ever player.

Last Friday, Barca transfer market expert Romero reported that Barca presented the viability plan at the end of March, which was knocked back by Tebas and deemed unsatisfactory.

Almost a week later, though, Romero has now reported that the club and the league remain in contact each day, and that the viability plan is starting to get the green light from the Spanish top flight.

The plan details that there will be two important exits from the club this summer plus a reduction in salaries across the first team squad.

In addition to signing Messi, Barca also want to buy another three new players which the salary reductions and two big exits should pave the way for.

Romero’s reports come a day after Tebas opened the door to Messi’s potential return at a press conference following a La Liga Extraordinary Assembly.

“Today they can not register Messi, but hopefully they manage it,” Tebas said, when broached on the subject. “There is plenty of time left.

“We are waiting for a viability plan, they can sell players, [but] today it is difficult. Hopefully, as a league, Barca will make the necessary moves for Messi to come, but we will not change any rules so that they can sign Messi.

“That is what we expect. I would like Messi to play in this competition,” Tebas added.

Though Tebas is currently at loggerheads with Laporta over Barca’s support for the breakaway European Super League and mud-slinging related to the ‘Caso Negreira’ Referee’s Committee payments scandal, the La Liga chief will be well aware that Messi returning is nothing but good news for his championship.