Having suspended Lionel Messi for the next two weeks following an unauthorised trip to Saudi Arabia on Monday, the Argentine appears to have definitively lost the support of the Paris Saint-Germain hierarchy.
According to France Bleu and RMC Sport, the club’s Sporting Advisor, Luís Campos, personally called the 35-year-old on Monday night to inform him of his suspension, and that disciplinary proceedings had been opened against him. The decision had been taken even before Messi had returned from his commitments as the Gulf state’s tourism ambassador.
With the prospects of a contract extension in the French capital now all but gone, it remains to be seen whether the former Barcelona man will appear at the Parc des Princes again before he leaves. His suspension will see him sit out the trip to Troyes and the home match against Ajaccio. The remaining fixtures of the season will see Les Parisiens travel to relegation battlers Auxerre and Strasbourg, before finishing the campaign with a home match against high-fliers Clermont. With the club’s record-breaking 11th Ligue 1 title still hanging in the balance – Marseille are now just five points behind – it’s another off-pitch controversy that the team could have gone without.
GFFN | Raphaël Jucobin
