La Liga president Javier Tebas has slammed controversial Real Madrid president Florentino Perez for his role in the chain of events that led to Lionel Messi's eventual departure from Barcelona this summer.
Real Madrid reportedly said no to the CVC agreement that would've guaranteed a sizable chunk of income for each La Liga team, with Tebas confirming to Sport (quotes via Marca) that Barcelona agreed to the same before Messi's departure.
"Barça agreed with CVC for a month, until Madrid said no. In the club there is an inferiority complex with Florentino. Florentino has kidnapped Barça."
"It can happen like in 2003, when Laporta charged the losses to Gaspart and a group of partners took him to court. The covid generated 200 million losses."
Barcelona and Real Madrid looking to start afresh this season
Javier Tebas' comments indicate that there is a huge financial crisis in La Liga currently, which is also apparent from the transfer activities of Barcelona and Real Madrid. While Lionel Messi's departure was the major talking point at the Camp Nou, a handful of other players like Antoine Griezmann were also shipped off to balance the books.
In terms of incomings, Barcelona focussed on free transfers, as the likes of Eric Garcia, Memphis Depay and Sergio Aguero joined the club in the early days of the summer transfer window. Luuk de Jong turned out to be their surprise deadline day acquisition, with the Dutch striker signing on a season-long loan deal from Sevilla to replace Antoine Griezmann.
Real Madrid also had to reluctantly part ways with Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane, with the former sealing a free transfer to PSG after failing to agree a new deal at the club. Los Blancos snapped up David Alaba on a free transfer from Bayern Munich, while Eduardo Camavinga joined for a fee believed to be in the region of £30 million from Rennes.
Real Madrid's pursuit of Kylian Mbappe ultimately failed to bear fruit, as PSG stood firm and refused to sanction his sale. The record European champions reportedly offered a staggering £180 million for his services in the last few days of the transfer window, an offer that was swiftly turned down by the Ligue 1 giants.