Laporta: "Messi is still identified with Barça... His return? We'll see"

"Right now we are with negative 'fair play' that we would have to compensate to be able to sign"

BARCELONA, Nov. 15 (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of FC Barcelona, ​​Joan Laporta, explained that the figure of Leo Messi is "still associated" with the Barça brand, as he has verified these days in Colombia and also previously, and did not want to talk about a possible return at the end of the season though he let go of an open "we'll see."

"With players like Messi this (the Barça brand) gains more strength and it is true that they still identify him with Barça. We will see about the return leg, they are complicated things and he is at PSG and I would not like to get into a controversy with them. No I would like to have controversy out of respect for Messi and out of respect for the club," Laporta assured.

In an interview in El món with RAC1 collected by Europa Press, the Blaugrana president, who is visiting Colombia --on his border with Venezuela-- as part of a trip from the Fundació FC Barcelona, ​​assured that the boys and girls are asking, among other things, about Messi's return to the now called Spotify Camp Nou.

"The boys and girls from the settlements, when they accompany you and show you the place and make jokes and explain things, suddenly they come up with Messi, so I have to make him return to Barça. I told them that, well, that Messi is from Barça and that they are calm, that he is the best and that we have been lucky to have him and that we will see, we will see", he reiterated.

It is clear to him that, wherever he goes, people still "identify Messi with Barça". "And I like this. The Barça brand is very powerful, too, and they know about us in the most remote places in the world. They know that we are rebuilding, that we have to win the League, that Lewandowski or Pedri are great players. Barça continues to have a lot of strength, perhaps more than ever", he valued.

On the other hand, the president spoke of the Super League project, which he does not consider dead pending a judicial resolution. "I think the report will be favorable to the clubs, but if we don't enter into a dialogue with UEFA it will lead to nothing. I think the clubs should govern the competition. If not, there would be a risk of winning and there would be a fund that I would like to control the competition. It should be the control for the clubs, in the majority, together with UEFA," he explained.

Financially, it would be a great help. "There is a bonus of 1,000 million to be distributed among the founding clubs, the first year. It has to be specified, it has been changing because at the beginning it was a higher figure. But what the competition represents, winning it, would be about 300-350 million euros," he recalled.

In any case, he assured that the club's economic problems are being "solved without the Super League." "But if we participated in it, more. The levers saved the club from ruin and now we will be one of the most economically solid clubs in the world. If you add the Super League, we will have a substantial improvement. And I'm not saying if we won it, "he valued .

On the other hand, about the upcoming winter market, at the moment no reinforcement could be signed. "We are looking to overcome factors that affect financial 'fair play' to be able to sign if the coach and sports director wanted it. Right now we are with a negative 'fair play' that we would have to compensate for in order to sign," he argued.