La Liga claims Lionel Messi’s Barcelona contract is still valid, days after his shock announcement that he wants to leave the club and hours after he failed to attend a pre-season medical.
Messi’s failure to show for his medical underlined the 33-year-old’s determination to leave the club he has been with throughout his career.
The six-time World Player of the Year insists he has a clause in his contract that allows him to leave on a free transfer, a claim disputed by Barcelona and now by La Liga.
The ruling body says the only way a club can sign the Argentinian forward is by triggering a release clause of 700 million euros (NZ$1.2 billion).
"In compliance with the applicable rule, La Liga will not approve a request to be deregistered as a player with the Spanish football federation, unless the amount in the release clause has been paid," La Liga says.
On Monday (NZ time), Reuters footage showed players arriving for coronavirus tests and Messi did not appear. He was due at Barcelona’s training ground at 10.15am local time, but a club source confirmed to Reuters he had not arrived.
La Liga’s stance is a blow to Messi’s hopes of a quick departure and to those clubs wishing to sign him.
English superpowers Manchester City are the favourites, which would allow Messi to link up with former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola, but even the Abu Dhabi-owned club might find the massive fee - plus Messi’s huge salary - a dealbreaker.
Messi, who has won more than 30 major trophies with the Spanish club and scored more than 600 goals, earns about one million euros ($NZ1.76m) per week.
On Wednesday, he informed Barcelona that he wished to leave immediately, plunging the club into new turmoil less than two weeks after their humiliating 8-2 Champions League quarter-final defeat by Bayern Munich.
Messi’s lawyers plan to invoke a clause in his four-year contract, signed in 2017, which would have allowed the forward to leave the club for free, if he had requested it by June 10.
They will argue that that date - nominally the end of the season - is now irrelevant, after the coronavirus pandemic forced an extension of the La Liga season deep into August.