La Liga have issued a brief statement to completely deny claims from Lionel Messi's camp that the Barcelona captain no longer had a €700million buyout clause in his contract.
Messi's father Jorge had insisted that the clause had expired in a statement released on behalf of the Barca captain on Friday.
The Messi camp had hoped that the removal of the buyout clause would mean that the Argentinean could join a new club on a free transfer or for a fee much less than the clause, with Manchester City still leading the race to tempt him from the Nou Camp this summer.
In spelling out why he felt the clause was no longer valid, Jorge Messi wrote: "1 - We don't know what contract they've seen and analysed to back up claims only the buyout
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