Exclusive: Messi’s agreement shows Europe the way, says Premier League architect

According to caughtoffside, Lionel Messi’s arrival to Inter Miami came as a shock to many. With so much left to give the beautiful game, it would have been no surprise to see him back at Barcelona this season, and he is thought to have hinted in recent interviews that returning to the club was his desire.

He had other offers, but he picked the one that took him to MLS and David Beckham’s team, which was a huge coup for the former Manchester United number seven.

Messi’s agreement will soon be mirrored.

The agreement is unlikely to have been achievable without the assistance of business partners, thought to be Adidas, which sponsors Messi and provides uniforms for a number of MLS clubs, and Apple, which has the exclusive rights to broadcast the games on Apple TV.

For those football fans who are perplexed as to how firms may be engaged in a club signing a player, former super agency and Premier League co-creator Jon Smith feels it is only a matter of time until a similar situation occurs in Europe.

“Adidas and Apple assisted MLS and Inter Miami in signing Lionel Messi, and I believe we just need to look at the music industry as an example of whether the same can happen in Europe,” he remarked in his exclusive piece with CaughtOffside.

“important businesses now cross-pollinate all important acts. Sponsorships are frequently IT-led, thus there is a visible download activity around not just ticketing, but also the real sponsorship of the event itself.

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“Football is going to go the same way because football is the most followed sport in the world. “The greatest participants are now nations, therefore significant firms will join in that support. It is destined to happen.”

Clearly, a line must be drawn between what business partners can influence and what they cannot, but Smith sees no problem.

In the future, most transactions may look like the one struck for Messi.

“As long as the rights owners, which are the clubs and the leagues, have the ability to dictate the circumstances, rather than the brands and the countries telling people how to play their game and how to influence what happens on the pitch, there isn’t going to be a problem,” he said.

“The main concern for, I suppose, all of us who don’t enjoy dominance in our lives is that the people with the large money, who are giant hedge funds, governments, and significant brands, will be able to effectively control the world in 20 years because they’ll have the technology behind them.

“They will have the data that they are absorbing, and they will be able to control what you believe and do. All of this is a social problem, but football, as we’ve already stated in this column, mirrors society.”