With the possibility of a Lionel Messi exit from FC Barcelona looming next summer, La Liga President Javier Tebas has said that Manchester City “competes outside the rules.”
Having previously hit out at Manchester’s second club numerous times, he also said that he has no worries about offending them. Tebas made the comments while also claiming that the Spanish top flight could cope just fine with the departure of the Argentine superstar.
“We would prefer Messi to stay in La Liga but Ronaldo and Neymar left and we have not noticed any difference,” Tebas said.
“We are ready.”
Messi or Ronaldo, in the 2010s, one of these two men was the greatest footballer on Earth, and you can debate who, and then why it’s him, at any specific moment. City has tried to acquire Messi a few times, and in 2020 they came a little bit closer.
It is thought that they could have a decent shot at getting this deal over the line next summer. Given the Argentine winger’s contract situation at Barcelona, 2021 could be their best chance yet.
Messi is the ultimate “get” for City, even more than manager Pep Guardiola was when they signed him. Guardiola and Messi are the coach and player soccer dynamic duo in the same way that Bill Belichick and Tom Brady are to football.
City’s ambitions, like their resources, are unlike any other in football.
They are owned by City Football Group, an imperial holding company that is 78% controlled by Abu Dhabi United Group, a private equity company owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, member of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family and Minister of Presidential Affairs for the UAE.
In other words, they’re owned an ultra-wealthy petrolstate. Sheikh Mansour’s net worth alone is estimated to be $22 billion. Tebas, like many others in the football world, feels they are not competing on a level playing field with everyone else
“I have criticized what they do so many times,” Tebas said.
“Doing it one more time makes no difference. City is neither affected by COVID or pandemics or anything because they are financed differently and it is impossible to fight against that.”
Tebas also took a shot at Man City earlier this year when their UEFA ban, for allegedly violating Financial Fair Play, got overturned.
He won the Premier League twice in his first three seasons, but when this season began he still had two main objectives to achieve at the club. The first is to get the greatest player he’s ever coached, Lionel Messi over to Manchester.
The knock on Pep is that he’s never won a Champions League without Messi, and now he’s at a club that has never reached even a UCL final.
Last season was their best shot, as they entered the knockout round as the leading contender to win it all, but they still fell well short.
This is the second main objective that Guardiola needs to achieve at City, and he’s well aware that his legacy at the club will be judged by whether or not he clears this final hurdle.
The club’s high water mark in the competition was a 2015/16 semi-final appearance, the final year before Guardiola’s arrival. Maybe it will take acquiring Lionel Messi to finally get them over the hump.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.