Argentinean outlet TyC Sports insist that Lionel Messi will see out the final year of his contract at Barcelona and will issue a statement in due course to confirm his decision. Those claims were backed up by Sphera Sports earlier on Friday, who add that Messi has already recorded a message, presumably a video recording, to confirm that he is staying on at Camp Nou.

Messi's father goes on the attack

TyC Sports' claims came shortly after the publication of a strongly-worded letter by Messi's father Jorge addressed to LaLiga president Javier Tebas in which he accused the Spanish league of misreading and misunderstanding the small print in the player's contract.

According to LaLiga, Messi's contract with Barcelona and a 700 million euro release clause remain valid. The Messi camp however, disagree and say that the release clause became null and void on 10 June - after the domestic league was due to finish. The league campaign had to be rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic and was concluded after that deadline over a month later on 19 July . 

Reports in Argentina suggest that Jorge Messi's letter to LaLiga was just a face-saving exercise as a well as a prelude to another impending statement from Messi to be announced in the next few hours to state his intention of staying at Barcelona.