Lionel Messi and Inter Miami are ‘screwed’ says unnamed MLS executive as David Beckham’s franchise must find more allocation money or sell players to be roster compliant for the new season

• The club must shed players in order to comply with the league’s salary rules 
• Sales of players to clubs overseas could be applied to the allocation money pile
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Major League Soccer’s salary structure is apparently coming back to bite its premiere franchise as Inter Miami will need to do more work to become compliant before the club’s season starts next week.

With a bloated roster of players like Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, and new arrival Luis Suarez, Inter Miami will need to make adjustments to follow the league’s rules.

According to The Athletic, the club will have to come up with more allocation money and may even have to shed salary to meet those requirements.

Sources tell the outlet that players like defenders DeAndre Yedlin and Sergii Kryvstov as well as midfielders like Gregore, Jean Mota, and Robert Taylor are all available to be moved in order to comply with MLS’s roster regulations.

They also say that the club is willing to terminate the contract of Coco Jean if a transfer or trade isn’t agreed to in time.

The club must be roster compliant by February 20, the day before their opening match against Real Salt Lake – which leaves them at the point of considering any outbound moves for players on large salaries.

A high-ranking sporting executive at a different club told The Athletic, ‘They are screwed. Trust me.’

It is not clear how much money Miami will need in order to meet requirements and the amount of allocation money used to pay down bigger contracts the club had from previous years.

Inter Miami could benefit directly from sending players abroad. Gregore (a designated player) and Jean Mota could, for example, be sold to clubs in Brazil and the fees from those sales could be converted to allocation money.

It would be more moves in an offseason where Inter Miami saw multiple players depart the club. 

That includes star center back Kamal Miller moving to Portland Timbers and Leandro Gonzalez Pirez departing for River Plate.

Inter Miami already acquired players like Luis Suarez and Julian Gressel on free transfers and added center back Nicolas Freire on loan from Mexican side Pumas.

It’s not been the smoothest sailing this offseason for Inter Miami – having played six friendlies and putting up a record of 1-1-4 in that time.

That included a win over the Hong Kong national team that generated controversy when Messi didn’t take the field following reported promises that he would.

The club plays one more friendly on Thursday evening against Messi’s former club, Newell’s Old Boys.

Inter Miami then plays its first league match of the season at home against RSL on the 21st.