Barcelona forward, Lionel Messi will not be given any special treatment as Barcelona try to negotiate salary reductions amid the coronavirus pandemic, interim president, Carles Tusquets has said.
He recently revealed that Barcelona’s wage bill is currently the highest in the world, so something has to be done.
According to him, Barcelona cannot afford to make a tailor-made deal just for Messi, while the other players accept lesser salaries than expected.
He added that every staff employee will be satisfied after the adjustment and he expects a balance as income will fall by about €300 million (£270m/$349m) if stadiums remain closed.
His words, “I think we can reach an agreement. It seems to me that there is a willingness to do so. We do not want to take money from anyone but to adjust salaries so we can pay them when possible – this is the solution we think is the most viable given the circumstances.
“We cannot make a tailor-made suit just for [Messi]. We can create different structures for similar cases but we cannot tailor-make deals for individuals.
“We intend to solve the issue with the whole staff and all the employees and we will do everything possible to ensure everybody is satisfied.
“Depending on the money available, we know that our income will fall by around €300 million (£270m/$349m) if we cannot open the stadium. Even if we can, it will not be fully open this season.”
“I won’t get into specifics about Messi because we have to finish negotiations first. What I can say is that there is a willingness from Messi and his representatives.
“There is no reason to hide the fact that Barcelona’s wage bill is the highest in Europe but I like to look to the future and today I was with [Ramon] Planes, [Ronald] Koeman and [Oscar] Grau, and I congratulated them on the courage to bet on young players, not many have that much courage.
“We are top of the rankings in terms of salary expenditure, it is around 70 per cent of the total budget of the club and that is a lot, but we are working on it.”
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