Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu says Lionel Messi always advocated for the team to cut their salaries after the forward was left furious with the portrayal of the team.
The first-team squad agreed to take a 70% wage cut during the coronavirus pandemic, reducing their own salaries in order to allow non-playing staff to continue earning their full wage.
However, Messi was unhappy with how the decision had been portrayed in the media, with implications that they were dragging their feet over the wage cut.
‘Our will has always been to apply a drop in the salary we receive,’ insisted the Argentine attacker, before venting at Barcelona’s board.
‘It does not cease to surprise us that from within the club there were those who tried to put is under a magnifying glass and tried to add pressure to do something that we always knew we would do.’
Bartomeu has now responded to Messi’s statement, confirming that it was the player who initially pushed for the first-team to do their bit.
‘Messi told me from day one that this reduction had to be made,’ Bartomeu told Sport and Mundo Deportivo. ‘This proposal came from the captains. It is a gesture that demonstrates their commitment to the club.’
On Messi’s criticism, he continued: ‘Perhaps [the players] have been frustrated by things said by people inside and outside the club, who do not have all the information.
‘But the negotiations were carried out only by [Barcelona CEO] Oscar Grau and me and we have not said anything.
‘I can’t control who is talking. I don’t know who it is. In the end we only sat down with the four captains, the CEO and myself. But the players did not leak, I did not leak and neither did Oscar Grau. We agreed behind the scenes.’
He added: ‘I am not concerned, these have simply been very difficult days not because of the negotiations but because of what is happening in society, throughout Europe, and people have spoken without knowing the reality of the negotiations or having knowledge of the situation.’
