2021 has already been an incredible year in football, and events of recent days have seen the goings on at the top level of the game become even more unbelievable.

It’s tempting to say this year’s series of inconceivable events reached a high watermark when the news broke on Thursday that Lionel Messi will not sign a new contract with Barcelona. 

But as we saw with the extraordinary failed launch of the European Super League back in April, there is no limit to football’s ability to generate ridiculous storylines.

The latest chapter in the Messi saga came shortly after the announcement that a private equity firm, CVC Capital Partners, had bought a stake in La Liga for €2.7 billion. This move towards private ownership of leagues as well as clubs is a step in the wrong direction, but not for the reasons Barcelona and Real Madrid think it is.

There have been suggestions that failing to secure a new contract for Messi was part of a powerplay by Barca who, along with Real, are against the CVC investment and potential disruption of the status quo in La Liga, for obvious reasons.

Even though last season’s title was won by Atletico Madrid, the big two have continued their dominance in recent years. Despite this, the pair of superclubs have been on a financial precipice for some time. 

The coronavirus pandemic has them teetering on the edge, but now more of their behind-the-scenes problems have come to light, it’s evident they might have toppled soon anyway.

Real and Barca were driving forces behind April’s European Super League announcement and, looking at the sorry situation they have gotten themselves into, their desperation to rescue themselves with a financial injection from anywhere, regardless of the impact on the wider game, was no surprise.

Had there been no backlash to the Super League plans and these clubs had secured the millions coming their way, it’s likely, given the way they are run, it would have merely prolonged their period of mismanagement rather than solving problems.

These problems are rooted in football’s hypercapitalism and a Super League was just another step for clubs looking to monopolise, hence the ease with which others were persuaded to sign up. There was a combination of a fear of missing out and an eagerness to lift up the ladder and strengthen the cabal at the top level of European football.

As the Messi news emerged, another of those clubs involved in the failed Super League, Manchester City, had already announced the signing of Jack Grealish from Aston Villa after they triggered his £100m release fee.

Transfers carried out for such inconceivable sums have a sense of fantasy football, or of video games turned into reality. And even though the Grealish transfer is a British record, it’s not even among the top five highest transfer fees in football.

Paris Saint-Germain occupy spots one and two in the top-transfers chart with their signings of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, while Barcelona also have two players in the top five — Antione Griezmann and Philippe Coutinho.

Other clubs’ attempts to keep up with PSG and Man City can potentially threaten their existence. Given Barcelona’s current financial plight, those transfer fees were fantasy football playing out in real life — most of the money didn’t exist.

Looking beyond the immediate failure, to the structures behind said failures, the situation is made all the more intriguing as Barcelona and Real Madrid are one of a handful of Spanish clubs still owned and run by their members, or socios as they are known in Spanish.

These socios are members who are able to vote on club issues, with the most important being the appointment of the club’s president.

That they have still managed to get into such a pickle highlights that though a movement towards increased supporter ownership and supporter influence is the right way to go, combining it with unfettered and careless capitalism is unsurprisingly still damaging. 

Even the word socios has been hijacked by a cryptocurrency platform posing as a fan-involvement tool. Leeds United are the latest club to announce a partnership with Socios and their chiliz digital currency, who also have a partnership with Grealish’s new club, Man City.

In the future, there may be a way for blockchain technology to facilitate some aspects of supporter-run clubs throughout football, but a cryptocurrency exchange disguised as fan involvement isn’t that.

Grealish and Messi will continue to light up football stadiums and entertain supporters wherever they take to the field this coming season, but behind the scenes, big clubs continue to play a game far removed from football. 

It’s one that may end up negatively affecting players and fans, and shows that the determination supporters had to change the game in the immediate aftermath of the Super League needs to continue into the new season.