Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos’s contract talks with Paris Saint Germain have been put on hold amid the fear of breaching Financial Fair Play rule.
The Paris powerhouse was one of several clubs fined for breaching UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations for the 2020-2021 campaign.
The Ligue 1 champions paid the sum of 10 million euros fine while having a further 45 million euros postponed pending possible accounts with future punishments apparent.
As of their most recent financial report, PSG had lost a staggering 370 million euros.
Both Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos, two of the club’s highest-earning stars, are set to become free agents this summer, forcing the club to make some difficult financial choices.
The French club could face sanctions such as having the size of their registered squad for European competition lowered from 25 to 23 or being prevented from registering any new players to their European squad for the upcoming season.
According to L’Équipe, PSG has begun informal talks with Messi and Ramos to keep them at the club.
However, the club’s Financial Flexibility Policy (FFP) and the possibility of sanctions may make it impossible to reach a new contract with either player.
New contracts have been put on hold until final decisions have been made because the club knows they need to restructure their squad and finances immediately.
According to reports by Diario AS, there is also a remote possibility of the club being banned from all European competition.
That won’t happen until the 2024/2025 season at the earliest, and it will be the result of years of consistent losses that will force them to drastically reduce their wage bill in the meantime.
Messi was the highest-paid athlete in the world until the summer of last year when the club signed Kylian Mbappe to a new three-year contract extension.
The Argentine maestro‘s earnings increased from £25.5m (€30m) in his first year in Paris to £34m (€40m) in the second and final year of his two-year deal in the French capital. It has been speculated that Messi has earned more than €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in his professional career.
Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos both have contracts that will expire this summer. Despite Ramos’s impressive performance in PSG’s Champions League elimination on Wednesday, 8th of March, 2023, the club has a deal in place to sign Milan Skriniar from Inter and wants to sign Pau Torres from Villarreal as his replacement. Without a significant wage cut, Ramos may be let go.
Along with Mbappe’s deal extension, PSG also added Renato Sanches and Vitinha, both of whom are Portuguese internationals and came to the club from Lille and Porto, respectively. Also, Carlos Soler, another midfielder, joined the club from Valencia.
Meanwhile, they made Nuno Mendes’ loan move from Sporting CP permanent and brought in Hugo Ekitike (Reims) and Nordi Mukiele (RB Leipzig) as new additions.
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