For the second time in a few weeks, a Barça player refuses to return to work. If first it was Arthur Melo, now it will be Lionel Messi. If the former will not be missed, the possibility of seeing the Argentine leave breaks the heart of Barcelona. Messi will not go to training because he believes he has terminated his contract. But Barça consider that the contract does not end until June 2021 and, therefore, can accuse him of breaching the internal code of the club and the League. And sanction it. The problem, however, is that Messi should not suffer much for being fined, as he renounces salary and work by terminating his contract.
In this race against the clock, the situation will be complicated this Monday if Messi keeps his word and adds two fouls. That is, if he does not show up for the PCR tests today and does not take Koeman’s orders tomorrow, he would be facing a serious sanction, as written in the collective agreement of professional footballers, for not going to to work. In these cases, the club could suspend him from salary and work for two to ten days, with a fine that could initially be 7% of the player’s total salary.
The case would be further complicated on Tuesday if Barça consider that it has been three days since one of their workers showed up at work. In this case it would be a very serious misconduct, with sanctions that can involve the suspension of salary and work from eleven to thirty days and a fine of 25% of the salary these days. Under the players ’agreement, there are no longer any tougher sanctions, although the club could end up unilaterally dismissing the player if it believes it is not fulfilling its contract. Barça do not consider this option, as precisely what they want to avoid is losing the footballer. An alternative would be to threaten to take him to court, but Messi also seems willing to accept that possibility.
Barça is therefore debating how to deal with this situation. He refuses to sell it and says he doesn’t want to negotiate with anyone. But Messi is still determined to leave and the possible sanctions he receives should not affect him. There is the path of dialogue, currently rejected by the club, which only wants to meet with Messi if it is to talk about his contract extension. A contract that Messi is already terminating.
.
