Paris Saint-Germain have put contract talks with Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos on hold with concerns they will face new Champions League sanctions for more Financial Fair Play (FFP) breaches.
PSG were one of 10 teams fined for breaching UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules for the 2020-21 campaign. They paid out a €10m fine while having another €45m suspended pending future accounts, with more punishments possible.
The Ligue 1 side have been posting record losses in recent years with their most recent set of accounts showing a huge €370m in losses.
Messi and Ramos are among their highest earning players and with both of them out of contract this summer, the club must make tough financial decisions.
Possible sanctions could include the club being unable to register any new players to their European team for next season and a potential reduction in the size of their registered squad for European competition dropping from 25 to 23.
There is also a threat that they could be expelled from the competition entirely, as reported by Diario AS. The soonest that could happen would be by the 2024/25 season and would be as the result of the losses in that timeframe – meaning that their wage bill needs to be cut in the meantime.
Prior to the club tying down Kylian Mbappe to a new three-year deal last summer, Messi was the best-paid player in the world.
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The Argentine star’s first year in Paris saw him take home an annual salary of £25.5m (€30m), although this increased to £34million (€40m) for the current and last year of his two-year deal in Paris.
It is reported that Messi has now received more than €1,000m throughout his career – more than any other player.
Like Messi, Ramos is out of contract this summer. He impressed in PSG’s Champions League elimination this week but they have a deal lined up to sign Skriniar from Inter while they want to sign Pau Torres from Villarreal. That may mean Ramos is moved offloaded.
A report from L’Équipe has claimed PSG want to keep Messi and Ramos at the club with informal talks opened but the FFP pressures and threat of sanctions may mean new deals are not feasible.
