Lionel Messi has confirmed he will remain at Barcelona due to his desire to avoid a legal battle.
Jorge Messi had refuted claims from Barca that his son has a €700m release clause in his deal.
He also slammed LaLiga for getting involved in the saga and insisting a fee must be paid.
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Messi told Goal in an explosive admission:
‘I wasn’t happy and I wanted to leave. I have not been allowed this in any way and I will stay at the club so as not to get into a legal dispute.
The management of the club led by (Josep) Bartomeu is a disaster.
‘When I communicated my wish to leave to my wife and children, it was a brutal drama.
‘The whole family began crying, my children did not want to leave Barcelona, nor did they want to change schools.
‘But I looked further afield and I want to compete at the highest level, win titles, compete in the Champions League.
You can win or lose in it, because it is very difficult, but you have to compete.
‘At least compete for it and let us not fall apart in Rome, Liverpool, Lisbon.
All that led me to think about that decision that I wanted to carry out.’
Messi told the club he wanted to leave last month after growing tired of the club’s leadership.
He had appeared to be willing to fight on when his father issued a statement reiterating his claim that he does not have a €700m release clause.
Not having a release clause could have drastically changed things for Manchester City if the Barcelona captain had been prepared to rip up his contract and let a tribunal decide his transfer fee.
