At that time, FC Barcelona proposed a 70% salary reduction for Messi and his teammates to cope with the pandemic, seriously affecting the club’s economy. The first discussion related to this issue began on April 2, 2020. Barca midfielder Gerard Pique and Luis Rubiales had a phone conversation in which Pique expressed Lionel Messi’s concerns about salary cuts during the pandemic with authorization from Barcelona’s number 10 player.
At 4:19 p.m. the same day, Luis Rubiales sent an audio message via WhatsApp to UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin, conveying what Gerard Pique, through Messi, had told him an hour earlier.
In this audio clip, Rubiales suggests the possibility of using the “UEFA fund” to compensate for the low salaries of the players. Rubiales also believes that Lionel Messi wants to keep the negotiations completely secret. “They (Pique and Messi) told me clearly, please, not to tell anyone about the use of UEFA funds to pay the players’ salaries, because if they knew they would kill us” – Rubiales said to Ceferin. Furthermore, Pique emphasized that he was conveying Lionel Messi’s request. It is important to know that the voice of the Argentine superstar, the captain of Barca at that time, was very important.
In response, the UEFA President pledged to keep Messi’s proposal completely secret and assured that “even my dog won’t know”. Luis Rubiales’ solution is to redirect funds from the RFEF in such a way that the money will reach Barcelona’s big players affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, including Lionel Messi: “I say it is important that they We have Messi and the others with us. There is no need to spend money. We just need to change the target and continue to give them money.”
After the conversation between the two presidents, a three-way call took place between Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique and Luis Rubiales. According to The Objective, the three discussed the proposal that Rubiales submitted to the Slovenian European football leader to help compensate for financial losses during the pandemic.
Two days later, on April 4, 2020, Rubiales spoke to Ceferin again and asked if he had considered the proposal, not forgetting to mention Messi’s concerns. The RFEF president announced that Lionel Messi was afraid of the negotiations being leaked and that it was known that UEFA and the RFEF were not properly handling the players’ salaries.
On April 6, Rubiales sent Ceferin a final proposal that 4% of revenue from television rights of all UEFA matches should be redirected and 50% of these funds should be used to Pay salaries to affected Barca players.
In a detailed proposal, Rubiales explains the new structure of the fund redirection: “The RFEF will allocate approximately 50% of the total amount to copyright issues. This fund includes salary reductions for players in First Division, Second Division, Third Division, women’s football and futsal. The remaining 50% will be distributed according to the needs of the club during the COVID-19 crisis without agreeing to reduce salaries (25% for professional clubs. and 25% for non-professional clubs).
This proposal also clearly states the period of application until the player’s salary reductions are fully compensated (about 50 million euros). However, the actions of Messi, Pique, Ceferin, and Rubiales can lead to a series of legal consequences, including abuse of power.
Particularly the Barcelona players Messi and Pique involved in the negotiations with Rubiales benefited more than their colleagues, and this was one of the main reasons why they insisted on strict secrecy.
