An exit that shook the foundations of football – Lionel Messi would leave Barcelona was the headline on the club website that shocked the world. Messi was due to sign a new contract with the Blaugrana and arrived back in town on Thursday, August 5, 2021, but was told he could not. On Sunday he said a tearful farewell to the club and the fans.
The beginning of his departure was set in motion on Monday. President Joan Laporta had stood for election with the promise that he would be the one to keep Messi at the club, and had made arrangements with the Argentine to do so. The money for that deal would come from the infamous CVC deal, which would see La Liga sell 10% of their TV rights for the next 50 years to give clubs an immediate injection of €2.1 billion. wages and investing in infrastructure. Sport has revealed how Barcelona's participation in that deal collapsed and subsequently led to Messi's departure.
La Liga president Javier Tebas had explained the terms of the deal with Laporta during a secret meeting in Lleida in July, and was all set to do so with the rest of the clubs, when Real Madrid president Florentino Perez aired received from the agreement. he immediately questioned CVC chief Javier de Jaime about the terms of the deal, as he had not been informed earlier – Perez does significant business with CVC, putting him in a position of power.
Perez did not see the benefits of the deal for Real Madrid and informed general manager Jose Angel Sanchez before asking him to find out whether Barcelona were aware of the deal. He in turn called his then Camp Nou counterpart Ferran Reverter and explained the rough terms of the deal. He was unaware of the deal, as Laporta had held the meeting without telling others, hoping to announce it once the deal for Messi's return was signed and sealed.
Reverter then called Jose Elias, who guaranteed Laporta's board, to discuss the deal. It was Elias' bank guarantee of €40 million that had brought Laporta and his board to power, and one of the conditions of that support was that he had to be informed at all times of any deal that might affect on its warranty. The fact that Reverter called Elias before the president was seen as a betrayal by Laporta and essentially ended his time at the club, with his departure eventually made official in February 2022.
Elias was angry when he heard the details of the deal and announced it to Laporta. This happened within a few hours on Monday and Elias made it clear that if Laporta were to complete the CVC deal he would immediately withdraw his €40 million bank guarantee. Without an alternative to finance the contract, Laporta felt his hands were tied and saw this as the end of Messi's time at the club.
Jorge Messi, Messi's father and agent, traveled to Barcelona to finalize the deal and told Laporta directly that money would never be an issue and that Messi would stay at all costs. However, at that point Laporta had called and after ruling out the CVC deal, he felt there was no going back. That's why the Messis continue to feel that Laporta sold them out and that his departure was not purely financial.
The Sport piece notes that Laporta had 'no other alternative', but this is of course one side and interpretation of events. Laporta found himself in a situation where the issue had not been resolved three days before Messi was due to sign his contract, and could have informed Elias or Reverter before the deal was revealed to them by others. Ultimately, Laporta found himself in an incredibly difficult situation, with a series of tough decisions to be made, but he failed to keep his promise to keep Messi at the club.