Messi and the financial Shenanigans!

If Only Buying the World's Best Player Was Easy! Leo Messi and Transfer issues surrounding him

To be a supporter of a club which signs Leo Messi, would be a dream come true for anyone unless you are a Barcelona fan that is. The impossible dream of signing Messi is back stronger than ever with new papers analysts crunching numbers following the rumors on a possible bad relationship with his manager and the contradictory player’s statements in the media.

Today we at "The Football Mind" look at the all the possible financial details involving Leo Messi, that is if he ever decides to leave FC Barcelona.

What will it take to buy Messi outright:

Transfer Fee:

Buying the world best player outright is no "Bargain". The numbers involved are huge and take a whole club into liquidation if the transfer turns all wrong. There would be no discussion regarding Messi we suppose,at least about the sales till 2016 with the elections around the corner. With transfer ban on the club, there is by no means they'd would even sit to discuss Leo Messi. But we still look into the details, just for you all!

If ever FC Barcelona agree to discuss the transfer for Messi,the potential buyer would be referred to the buy-out clause, which is much as 250 million euros in a contract that runs until 2018. That means paying a 20% more than Real Madrid paid for Cristiano Ronaldo and Bale combined, the two most expensive signings in history so far.

Annual Salary:

Now coming to the Wage part of the deal;

Any club would require no less than 50 million euros in annual gross salary to persuade the player. Or at least what is the same, 25 million euros net per season. Thus, assuming that the contract offered would be a five-year contract, the cost of the operation would be at a whopping 100 million annually, resulting from adding 50 million each year (gross salary) to the amortization of the buy-out clause (50 million over five years to cover the 250 million).

Clubs with enough financial ability to purchase Leo Messi:

And here we are in the most interesting part of the report, is your club wealthy enough or does it have enough financial backing to buy Leo Messi?

Talking look at the just released, revenue earned figures from Deloitte:

DELOITTE FOOTBALL MONEY LEAGUE

Here we look at the top seven clubs with highest revenue's globally. Barcelona who already own Messi shall be excluded from the list of potential buyers, that leaves us with six clubs. Real Madrid, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, PSG, Manchester City and Chelsea. With the financial embargo in Italy, no team from the Serie A can even dream of owning Leo Messi in the near future.

• Barcelona's greatest rivals Real Madrid are ruled outright. Barcelona will never do a Luis Figo again, at least with Leo Messi. They wouldn't want to face Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi in the same team we suppose. 
• Manchester United - according to the financial reports from last season the club made a profit of 52 million euros last season- would be the strongest contender from a pure financial standpoint. Even if the club generates a profit of 50 million euros year after year there would still be an annual gap close to 50 million euros to reach the annual requirement of 100 million.
• That leaves us with Bayern, Chelsea, PSG and Manchester City.
  
• We look at another club from the English Premier league, Chelsea FC! The club who have been linked most with Messi this winter, does Jose Mourinho's Chelsea, who made a profit if 24 million euro last season, have what it takes to buy Leo Messi? Lets find out.                                 

  With a profit 24 million to show this summer, the clubs look in a good position financially. With owner Roman Abramovich no more bank rolling the clubs transfer funds with his billions, Chelsea would therefore need another 76 million per season to reach the 100 million needed each year to fund the deal. With FFP high on agenda, we believe earning another 76 million is as tough as it gets. A extraordinary task even for the best of commercial directors and financial gurus we believe, unless a tooth fairy would just gave it to them. Lets assume if they try to generate the funds required for the transfer, a redeveloped 55,000 capacity Stamford Bridge would at the most yield 30 odd million more. Or if they could get an extraordinary sponsorship deal like Manchester United's - 90 million per year from Adidas or 65 from Chevrolet which would surely come under review from the FFP.

  So all said and done, there was no surprise when the question was put forward to Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, who just laughed it off!

  
  The Financial Fair Play:

• There he is, the unexpected guest my friends(Manchester City and PSG)! He's here to ruin your party. If only the 100 million needed to tackle the transfer surrounding Leo Messi were not a big enough handicap, the UEFA imposed FFP doesn't allow clubs to reach into the pockets of their owners as they would have done in the past.
• Thus, considering that this new regulation allows losses of “only” 30 million over three years -hence an average of 10 per season-, any losses above these figures should be covered by conventional revenue streams or by cost savings.
• Comfortably ruling out the Qatari owned clubs - Manchester City and PSG.
• The only club left from the above mentioned clubs, are Bayern Munich. Bayern had a profit of 26.5 million euros last season, which is just three million more than Chelsea, which means even the champions from Germany can't afford the four time Ballon dÓr winner, leaving Messi with no other option than staying at FC Barcelona.