The Spanish media revealed that the deep reason why Messi chose Inter Miami instead of returning to Barcelona was because the Catalan team was in danger of being excluded from participating in the Champions League in the 2023/24 season.
The European Football Federation (UEFA) is currently considering whether Barcelona will be kicked out of next season’s Champions League following the referee Enríquez Negreira bribery scandal. A decision will be made in the next two weeks. According to COPE, this is one of the main reasons why Messi chose Inter Miami instead of returning to Catalonia.
Before the start of the Champions League, Barça will be examined by the UEFA Ethics and Disciplinary Committee to determine if it has breached the tournament rules, although the Court has not yet reached a conclusion on the “Negreira case”. ”.
As a general rule, UEFA has the authority to disqualify teams from participating in tournaments organized by them. The federation has been doing this since 2007 when Milan won the Champions League before being fined for the “Calciopoli” incident. Barca won La Liga last season and will go straight into the Champions League group stage, and UEFA must quickly decide which team will replace the Camp Nou side if they are stripped of their right to participate.
In addition, another reason for Messi to move away from Barça is that “El Pulga” will have a profit sharing agreement. The first is with Apple TV+ (the official broadcaster of MLS). According to the report, the 2022 World Cup champion will get a share of the revenue generated by new subscribers on the MLS Season Pass, the subscription method to watch MLS on Apple TV.
Messi will also have a similar deal with Adidas, the kit sponsor for all MLS teams. In addition, he will have the opportunity to buy shares of Club Inter Miami and many huge incentives that MLS approves if Messi agrees to come to the United States to play.
