La Liga president explains how Barcelona can re-sign Lionel Messi
By Tom Gott
La Liga president Javier Tebas has admitted he sees Lionel Messi's potential return to Barcelona from Paris Saint-Germain as 'complicated', but insisted such a move is possible.
Barcelona have exceeded their salary cap by a huge amount and must reduce wages before any new signings or contract renewals can be completed, but that has not stopped them from chasing an eyecatching reunion with Messi.
90min understands that Barcelona are close to an agreement to bring Messi back to Camp Nou and the Blaugrana are working tirelessly to make the deal work financially, with a number of sales on the cards purely to lower the wage budget enough to re-sign the Argentine.
Any deals must be signed off by La Liga and Tebas explained what he needs to see before Messi's return will be approved.
"As of today, I see it as complicated," he told RMC's After Foot. "There is still time, but there will have to be departures of players and a decrease in the wage bill. There will have to be if they are to be able to register Messi.
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"And then there is a piece of information which we don't know, the salary of Messi. There are still many variables to understand.
"Barca is not like PSG, which has a gas and money tap to have a large salary mass. They have to reduce the salary mass to be able to sign up players. It's like the subway, let them out so they can get in. People still have to get out of the subway."
Messi's current employers, PSG, have been trying to tie the 35-year-old down to a new contract but have accepted that he is highly unlikely to extend, with a return to Barcelona high on Messi's agenda.
To try and boost their chances of getting a deal for Messi over the line, Barcelona are even understood to be exploring offering him a secondary role behind the scenes, which they believe could help offset some of the cost of his contract.
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