Barcelona – The Zoff at FC Barcelona has escalated after the “Barcagate”. While games of the team around Lionel Messi and Marc-Andre ter Stegen are also unthinkable in Spanish football, a power struggle is raging at the Catalan top club.
In protest against the controversial President Josep Bartomeu, six directors of the Spanish master announced their resignation. Among them are the two Vice Presidents Emili Rousaud and Enrique Tombas.
In a letter published by several media on Good Friday, they recommended new elections so that the association can also master the challenges posed by the corona pandemic. “It is our last service for the club,” they commented on the urgent advice. However, your decision to resign is primarily a reaction to the so-called “Barcagate”. There was “disillusionment”, it was said, that it had only been heard about in the press.
The Catalans are burning almost every day, the world-famous club is experiencing “one crisis after another at a dizzying pace,” commented “Marca”. “Sport” spoke of “Schism in the Barca leadership”.
But what was the “Barcagate” all about? Without the knowledge of the club management, Bartomeu is said to have commissioned a company for a lot of money to present and defame current and former players – including Messi and the former Barca coach Pep Guardiola – in social media.
The aim should have been to strengthen the club leadership in the public eye. For many directors, the scandal “caused the barrel to overflow”, said “Sport”.
Management in the Corona crisis was also displeased by the resigned directors. They are neither in agreement with the handling of the crisis nor with the scenarios that emerged after the pandemic. It is also about negotiations about a waiver of salaries for professionals.
The team accepted a temporary 70 percent waiver at the end of March. The top of the club had apparently tried to make the players look bad too. Messi was even prompted to make a statement in which he emphasized that the team had not opposed the cut in wages at all. “We are surprised that there were some inside the club who tried to put us in the spotlight and put pressure on us to do something we wanted to do anyway,” said the Argentinian.
FC Barcelona responded on Friday afternoon with an official statement. The “resignations announced in the last few hours” were “due to the restructuring of the board initiated by President Bartomeu this week.” The main aim of the restructuring, which will be completed in the coming days, is to “implement the necessary measures for the preparation of the future of the club” and to overcome the consequences of the corona crisis, it was said without further details. “Barca splits, but Bartomeu remains unshaken,” headlined “Marca”.
