Any club looking to sign Lionel Messi this summer must seek assurances that his clause to leave Barcelona has been properly activated.
That is according to Stephen Taylor Heath, head of sports law at JMW Solicitors, who says that the stakes are too high for a club to rely on a tribunal setting a transfer fee for the Argentine great.
Messi dropped a bombshell on the football world on Tuesday when he communicated his desire to leave the Nou Camp.
It put many clubs on high alert, with Chelsea fans eager to see their side complete what would be a sensational coup for the attacker.
Yet how much a side will have to pay for Messi remains up in the air due to an apparent dispute over a clause in his contract which would allow him to leave for free.
Heath says the coronavirus shutdown risks causing a difference in opinion over when the clause expired, and it is something that clubs like Chelsea need to check in order to avoid paying the rumoured £700 million buy-out clause in Messi's Nou Camp deal.
He explained: "The mooted release clause for Messi being entitled to leave without a transfer fee provided he gave notice within a certain number of days of the original date for the Champions League final in May (i.e within a number of days of the end of the season) is an interesting legal issue.
"When the football season was suspended there was much talk about whether player contracts that were due to expire at the end of the season would be deemed to be extended until after the season had finished.
"The generally accepted position was that in law the player could argue his contract had expired on the calendar date stated even though when the contract was entered into the mutual assumption was that the season would have ended by then.
"In other words, the suspension of the season made no contractual difference."
He continued: "Applying this principle in reverse to Messi, the club would argue the date in May that Messi had to give notice of leaving was independent of the season finishing.
"Therefore by giving notice now he could not leave until next May. Also, the club will argue that the reason they needed notice in May was so that they had enough time to recruit a replacement during the close season and given the transfer window has also shifted they would have less time to do so in the current circumstances.
"Messi will argue the whole purpose of the clause is to allow him to assess what he wants to do at the end of a season and so, in the circumstances, the application of the May date is not in the spirit of the agreement.
"Also, such a clause allowing a player to break his contract without a transfer fee is only available for superstars of Messi’s stature as such clauses normally involve a ‘buy out’ for a minimum/fixed transfer fee.
"Given the rumoured minimum contracted transfer fee of £700 million, if Messi leaves without being able to rely on the clause mentioned, the stakes are obviously high and the club and Messi may prefer to reach a solution rather than litigate.
"The club that acquires Messi will wish to have certainty as to the basis on which they are acquiring Messi rather than have the fee determined by a tribunal given the stakes are so high."
