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#2 Losing TV rights and incurring heavy financial losses if Lionel Messi leaves
Lionel Messi leaving Barcelona might adversely affect TV broadcaster rights. La Liga recently struck a deal with private equity firm CVC, selling 10 per cent of its business to the company. The TV broadcasting rights, though, are still held by the governing body. It earns billions of dollars every year by selling TV rights to different broadcasters around the world.
The Viacom18 Media Group, for example, earned the rights to broadcast matches in India for the next three years. In the United States, ESPN+ bought the rights for the next eight years for a resounding amount of US$1.4bn.
At the end of the 2019/20 season Barcelona topped the television rights ranking, earning approximately €165m from it.
If the TV rights come up for review in the next couple of years, Lionel Messi's departure from La Liga will certainly impact those revenues.
What would make things worse is Lionel Messi finding a new home in France after leaving Barcelona. Ligue One, with the presence of Neymar, is already attracting a lot of investors.
Amazon Prime recently struck a deal with the governing body there, by virtue of which they will have the right to broadcast 302 matches live per season starting in the middle of August.
What a big boost it would be for Ligue 1 to have someone like Lionel Messi taking to the pitch on a regular basis at PSG next season.
#1 La Liga and Barcelona losing the appeal among world-class players
La Liga once developed a reputation for being the most lucrative destination for players. It used to be a dream of every budding star to play for a club like Real Madrid or Barcelona.
That concept is changing rapidly with the leagues in England, Italy and France gaining in popularity. Premier League clubs such as Manchester City, with all the money they are spending in the transfer market right now, are attracting the world's top talents.
If La Liga fail to keep hold of top players such as Lionel Messi, they will lose their lure even more in the coming days.
Top talents such as Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe would prefer to play elsewhere rather than in Spain.
And therefore, for the sake of their sustainability, it is important that La Liga make some necessary changes to their rules in order to allow Barcelona to accommodate Lionel Messi.
Football fans know well that this saga is far from over. Instincts tell you that there will be a twist in the tale and Barcelona might not have lost the race yet. Fans will have to eagerly wait to see where Lionel Messi ends up come the 1st of September when the transfer window shuts.
