BARCELONA — Lionel Messi criticized a Barcelona vice president Friday for saying the Argentina forward didn't deserve a better contract. Javier Faus, the vice president in charge of Barcelona's finances, said two weeks ago he didn't see a reason to further extend Messi's contract. Last year, the club extended the 26-year-old Messi's contract through 2018. “Mr. Faus is a person that doesn't know anything about football and wants to run Barcelona like a business, which it isn't,” Messi told Catalan radio RAC1. “Barcelona is the best team in the world and deserves to be represented by the best executives. “I remind him that neither I nor any of my representatives have asked for a contract extension at any moment, and he knows that very well.” Messi is Barcelona's all-time leading scorer and a four-time FIFA world player of the year. He is in Argentina recovering from a hamstring injury and expected to return to Barcelona in January. Messi rarely speaks about the business side of his career. This is the first time he has openly criticized an important board member of the club he joined when he was 13 years old. Barcelona president Sandro Rosell said Thursday that he had not spoken to Messi about his contract, while adding “but my door is always open. I have no doubt that the best player in the world deserves to be the highest paid.” Messi defended himself, his family and fellow players Friday against press reports linking charity football matches he played in to alleged laundering of Colombian drug money. In his first personal reaction to the allegations that emerged Monday, the striker insisted the benefit matches were “100 percent charitable.” “I deeply regret what is being said not only about me but about people I love such as my dad and players who are my friends,” the Argentine international told Spanish radio station Rac1. Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported Monday that the player's father Jorge Messi is suspected of being involved in an operation to launder Colombian drug money through charity football matches featuring Messi and some of his Barcelona teammates. “What we do in those matches is 100 percent charitable,” Lionel Messi said in the radio interview. Spain's police and the Interior Ministry say a Colombian promoter is suspected of laundering drug money through concerts and sporting events in Spain, South America and the United States. — Agencies
