Lionel Messi’s club is worried even before the start of the season! On February 22nd, the world footballer gets going again with Inter Miami in the MLS with a home game against Real Salt Lake (2 a.m. CET) – but suddenly rumors about money worries are doing the rounds!
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“They’re screwed, believe me,” a senior official from another MLS club announced to The Athletic. An Inter Miami spokesman declined to comment. What’s going on in Miami?
That’s why the Messi club has problems
Despite the arrival of Messi and other veteran stars in the summer of 2023, Inter only ended up in penultimate place in the Eastern Conference last season.
His ex-Barca colleagues Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suárez have now also landed at Miami – and although none of the old stars cost a transfer fee, Miami is having trouble with player salaries, or more precisely: with the MLS salary cap.
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While MLS has not yet announced specific rules for the 2024 salary cap, the salary cap for a 20-man roster in 2023 was just $5.21 million. It included an upper limit of $651,250 per player; the minimum wage for professionals was 85,444 euros.
Inter Miami took advantage of loopholes
The fact that Lionel Messi can still earn $50 to $60 million is due to a rule that allows teams to list three “Designated Players” who can earn significantly more, but are only listed with the maximum salary of $651,250.
In addition, Inter Miami used additional loopholes to employ ten players last season who earned above the $651,250 limit.
Through so-called “allocation money” pots, the league gives clubs the opportunity to spend money on players well above the salary cap. There is “General Allocation Money” (GAM), the amount of which is not officially set, and “Targeted Allocation Money (TAM)”, which always includes $2.7 million per team. Inter Miami used this last year to sign Jordi Alba.
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Messi club is running out of time
Miami is currently having major problems meeting MLS requirements even with these special funds. Inter still needs to get players off the payroll. The situation is described as “dire,” according to the Athletic report. The squad must be registered by February 20th.
Therefore, players like Gregore, Jean Mota, DeAndre Yedlin, Robert Taylor and Sergii Kryvstov are actively offered. These are all part of the core of the team, which is why any sale would weaken the team.
In addition, Miami apparently wants to part with Frenchman Coco Jean, either through a transfer, a trade or a contract termination.
Sales to Brazil as a last hope
Although it is not publicly known how much money Miami has to save, the other MLS clubs know exactly about it and are of course careful not to help Inter out of its misery by bidding on their players.
This is particularly problematic because the transfer windows are already closed in most countries. Now all that remains is the hope of being able to transfer one or two players to Brazil.
This is not the first time that Miami has had problems with MLS regulations. In the past, the club has been caught under-declaring salaries, which has resulted in hefty fines and a reduced allocation of funds in 2022 and 2023. Although this sentence has now been served, the league will keep a keen eye on Miami.
2024-02-17 09:20:57
#Messi #club #fucked
