the bayern munich. the argentine believes he can leave for nothing. the club says he has a buyout clause. i've heard a lot of people doing, could he do it on a cold wednesday in stoke? i've always said because he's the best player ever. i'd like to see him show a few people that he could do that. reunion with pep guardiola at manchester city would make sense. only a handful of clubs could afford him. barcelona want him to stay. but this is a marriage on shaky ground. time for a look at the weather here's darren bett. hurricane laura is heading towards the coast of louisiana and texas. a dangerous six metre storm surge. across the atlantic, we had gusts of

80 mph from strom francis. that's now heading out into the baltic sea, but there is another area of low pressure threatening to come in from the atlantic tomorrow. patchy rain and showers for the northern half of the uk overnight. further south in england and wales, temperatures will be lower. lower still in northern ireland and scotland. clouding over through the day. we have showers and longer spells of rain, heavy rain coming into wales and towards the south—west of england. disappointing temperatures on the whole. towards east anglia and in the sunshine, 20 degrees. perhaps drier in northern scotla nd degrees. perhaps drier in northern scotland but temperatures will be a few degrees lower. pressure will be deepening on friday. not becoming a storm but the winds will strengthen for northern and western parts. it might turn dry for scotland and

northern ireland, as the band of rain move south. some heavy and sundry downpours over wales and the midlands and the south of england. in the north, even where it is drying off, temperatures are only 14 oi’ drying off, temperatures are only 14 or 15 degrees. it will be a cool weekend. most places will be dry with some sunshine. the wind is easing after saturday. but it will be hello and welcome to sportsday — i'm katie shanahan — coming up tonight... could lionel messi be on his way to the premier league? the legendary barcelona forward has put in a transfer request. what next for harry maguire?

the gates are finally open for fans as brighton v chelsea will be the first event with fans in nearly six months. also coming up in the programme... dare to dream, that is what sophia did and became a major champion after winning the women's open. honestly, i still can't quite believe it. every morning, i wake up and just make sure the trophy is still there and it wasn't all one big dream. hello and welcome along to sportsday, i'm katie shanahan. now, could one of the greatest footballers of all time be on his way to the premier league? all eyes are on lionel messi after he told barcelona

that he wants to leave the club. messi, who is a six—time ballon d'or winner, sent a fax to the club yesterday, saying that he wants to trigger a clause in his contract, which would allow him to leave for free with immediate effect. so has messi played his last game for barcelona? let's get more on this with austin halewood. first of all, just explain, why messi wants to leave barcelona? well, for so long, it would've seemed unthinkable, wouldn't it, to have been talking about this, messi leaving barcelona. but but after 20 years at the club he joined as a 13—year—old boy, messi's been getting more and more fed up in barcelona recently and there appears to be 3 main reasons why — the first is the rumours that surround him. it's no secret that there's been unrest inside the barcelona camp for a few seasons now, but according to reports in spain, he's fed up with being blamed for the majority of them. he's had enough of people saying that he hires and fires the coaches and chooses which players to sign.

the second reason is the board, and particularly ba rcelona's presidentjosep maria bartomeu — it's believed messi has fallen out with him after bartomeu failed to follow through on promises he made, like trying to re—sign neymar and bring in former player xavi as a new coach. and finally, results on the pitch. barca haven't won the champions league since 2015. they failed to win the spanish league this season and it's clear that the current team is a declining force. so it looks like their embarrassing 8—2 thrashing to bayern munich a couple of weeks ago was the final nail in the coffin. butjust because messi want‘s to leave doesnt mean it's simple, perhaps the best player of all time, is hoping to leave barcelona

allowed him to do that has now expired, so he's going to cost. would you believe it? 700 million euros. so which one is a going to be. so which one is it going to be? well here's spanish football expert guillem balluge to explain. the last contract that messi signed has a clause that says he can go whenever he wants for free as long as he says it on the 10th ofjune or before the 10th ofjune. that's ten days after the season is over. right? we are in a pandemic. but amol messi —— messi understands that the season is ending now which is why he sent a letter saying i want to leave, let me go. as of the two positions. they are saying, legally, everything is on the table. so in this case, with messi not playing for the next few months, or they reach an agreement where barcelona puts price that they are willing to

p5y~ puts price that they are willing to pay. but we are not there yet. at the moment, don't go. well barcelona are trying to convince messi to stay, they say they want to build a team around him but with his mind apparently set, it looks like this could be a transfer saga that runs on for a while. plenty of clubs would love to have messi in their team — but realistically where could he end up? that's a very good question. well, even if he does manage to leave for free — like he hopes to do — only a handful of clubs could actually afford him. so, where would they be? he's reportedly on 50 million euros a year — after tax — at barcelona. now paris saint germain certainly have the finances and the idea of teaming up with neymar again would appeal to messi. perhaps the favourites are manchester city but even inter milan in italy have the finances to be interested. they have lots of money from their

chinese owners as well. but could we really see messi in the premier league? it would mean that he could get the chance to team up with his former barcelona coach pep guardiola once again. but despite being one of the all—time greats, not every city fan wants him in theirteam. we have been to barcelona, we have seen them play, he's a magnificent player. i'm full of respect for him, but i don't think it's the right move for club. you know what i mean? anybody coming in after him, he's a big superstar, they will want an inflated wage as well. not every city fan wants messi in their team, but if messi perhaps fancied a new challenge altogether — then there are plenty of teams throwing their hat in the ring. league one burton albion, for example, they nearly let the cat out of the bag with this tweet. league two side port vale have even been sizing up kits for the argentinian.

and how about a new sport altogether — this was a tweet from nba side the chicago bulls, he's already been sized up for a shirt, but i'm not sure he's quite tall enough for basketball! katie, i don't know if he's quite tall enough or basketball. i'm sure he'd be good at whatever he tried, austin. thank you very much. harry maguire's legal team have lodged an appeal against his conviction and suspended jail sentence of 21 months and ten days in a greek court yesterday. it follows an incident on the greek island of mykonos. the club say that in accordance with greek law, the appeal nullifies maguire's conviction and there will be a full retrial in a more senior court. maguire is expected to remain as united captain. i'm joined now by sports lawyer, gregory ian addis who has represented many athletes in greece over the years. gregory, the legal process has moved very quickly in recent days,

just explain how things have developed in the last 2a hours? yes, first of all, i have to actually respectfully disagree with that statement that's considers, the statement says that the appeal nullifies the conviction. that's not the case. the conviction stands, the appeal will start from the beginning. it's a system, basically, that resembles very much the system we have whereby the appeal starts from the beginning, whereby the judges will examine both the facts and the law and they will decide on the facts and the law, but the conviction still stands. the only differences that terry mcguire b;l get a