Sports

Lawsuits Filed In 'Messi' Soccer Dispute

Fan lawsuits are the best.

By  
on

With the exception of the Packers, American professional sports are dominated by Hapsburgian legacy owners, clueless failsons, and new money entrepreneurs who actually care about the game thus making them the enemies of all the other owners. In any event, with franchises owned by individuals or small, close-knit groups, fans generally lack standing to drag the battle off the court and into… the other kind of court. At least college sports can get a little legally rowdy.

Thankfully, soccer doesn’t have the same problem.

Barcelona is owned by its army of fan subscribers, and one of them has filed legal complaints with both the French courts and the European Commission over the club letting its veteran star Lionel Messi decamp for the City of Light.

The fan contends that the Paris team is skirting competition rules to pay Messi’s salary:

FFP rules forbid top European soccer clubs from paying their playing squads an excessive share of their total revenues, according to the member’s complaints, which also state that the transfer of 34-year-old Argentine Messi to PSG would breach the code.

Still, it’s interesting to see a non-North American take on sports finances. While leagues over here impose salary caps to keep some degree of parity amongst teams, the Europeans don’t care how much you spend as long as the owners are pocketing at least 30 percent of it.

Sam Boor, a senior manager in Deloitte’s sports business group, told Reuters in April that European soccer’s governing body UEFA has historically said a 70% wage-to-revenue ratio should be the upper limit for clubs to target. But he added that a number of large clubs may go past that figure and possibly even breach 100% in the short term.

Sponsored

But I’m still struggling to figure out what a Barcelona fan is complaining about though. It’s not like Paris poached Messi; Barcelona refused to come to terms with him even after he offered to slash his salary 50 percent and they still couldn’t make it happen. At that point you can’t blame anyone with a budget for taking him off your hands.

Well, not “hands” because it’s soccer, but you get the idea.

Barcelona member files complaints to block Messi move to PSG [Reuters]

Sponsored

Topics

,