PETE JENSON: What next for Barcelona after Lionel Messi snubbed a return to Spain

Barcelona’s attempt at signing Lionel Messi was the pantomime that distracted from all the other ills at the club and now that he has decided to join Inter Milan the focus swings back to the refereeing scandal; a possible ban from the Champions League; and the club’s struggles to bring down its wage bill.

Optimism over Barcelona’s capacity to sign Messi spiked just as it became evident that they had paid former referee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira around £6.2million over a 17-year period from 2001, while he was vice-president of Spanish football’s Referees’ Committee.

No evidence the money was used to buy referees has been found and the most recent reports in Spain suggest the investigation is now focusing on fraud (where the money ended up) and not on match-fixing. The criminal case in Spain is also likely to drag on for months or even years.

But of more immediate concern to Barcelona is whether or not UEFA refuse to let them play in next season’s Champions League.

A decision from Aleksander Ceferin is expected in the next 10 days. The UEFA president must decide whether or not Article 4.02 and 4.03 can be applied excluding Barcelona from European competition for one year because of ‘activity aimed at fixing or influencing the outcome of a match at national or international level’.

Lionel Messi has announced his intentions to join MLS side Inter Miami for the 2023-24 season

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has a number of off-pitch issues to tackle in coming weeks

The fact that the investigation in Spain has not taken that direction suggests not but in an interview with Slovenian magazine Ekipa, Ceferin called the accusations levelled at Barcelona ‘exceptionally serious’ and Barcelona must now wait for his verdict.

What the club really needs is to start signing players but they have the age-old problem of not being able to sell the players they have. The club has signed Inigo Martinez on a free transfer from Athletic Bilbao until 2025 but the left-sided centre-back has it written into his contract that if Barcelona cannot ultimately register him with LaLiga he can go on loan elsewhere for the same pre-agreed salary. 

This agreement might have to be written into all contracts unless the wage bill is sufficiently reduced.

Barcelona are free to sign players but because they are over the maximum squad spend limit they must abide by La Liga’s 40 per cent rule.

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The club were informed of their maximum squad spend this week – a figure that will not be made public until after the window shuts in September so as not to handicap clubs in the market.

But Barca are in excess of theirs so to spend £3.5m on a player they have to free up £8.6m by letting someone leave. Xavi wants Illay Gundogan but the Manchester City midfielder wants £8.6m net a season and so £21.5m will first have to be recouped.

Ansu Fati and Jules Kounde are on around £12m but neither wants to leave the club. Midfielder Franck Kessie is on around £7.7m but also wants to stay. Raphinha is on around £10.7m but is adamant that he is going nowhere.

One player yet to publicly dig his heels in as others have done is Andreas Christensen. His departure would free up around £7.7m from the wage bill and the arrival of defender Martinez certainly means Barcelona could afford to lose him for all that he played well last season, but as yet there are no bids.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin (right) will make a decision on Barcelona’s eligibility within next season’s Champions League

Barcelona would want big fees for Christensen and Kessie despite the fact that they arrived for nothing last summer. If they were to bring in £30m for each they could spend 20 percent of that fee on new recruits – the percentage is understood to be different for sales as opposed to saved wages, in LaLiga’s complicated Financial Fair Play rules.

But for now no one wants to move. The players returned from a club trip to Japan on Wednesday and they don’t come back until July 10. 

They fly to the US on July 19 where they will play Juventus in San Jose, Arsenal in Los Angeles, Real Madrid in Dallas and Milan in Las Vegas.

When they return on August 2 there will still be a month left of the transfer window and there is nothing to indicate they will be anywhere near finalising their squad for next season.

Andreas Christensen – who joined from Chelsea last summer – could leave in coming months

The club have been linked with Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi and Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich but the former has a £51.5m release clause and the latter is rated at £69m and has two years left on his contract. 

Part of the deal to take Memphis Depay to Atletico Madrid last summer included a £16.3m option on Yannick Carrasco but again the funds will not be there if no one leaves.

It’s going to be a long summer for the Barcelona coach who is not going to know exactly who the club can sign until deep into preseason and possibly beyond the beginning of the new campaign on August 12 – exactly the reality that tested Messi’s patience beyond breaking point and made him decide to move to Miami rather than wait and hope Barcelona got their house in order.