It’s been a really tumultuous, head-spinning couple of days with the football world still trying to come to grips with the recent Friday shocker of a bombshell about UEFA’s handing out of a 2-year Champions League ban, together with a hefty fine, on Manchester City for ‘serious breaches’ on Financial Fair Play regulations and break-even information plus their refusal to cooperate with the investigation.
Barely has the impact of this news begun to really take its toll when another crazy story has just begun emerging from the Catalonian shores across the continent. One that brings in its aftermath a potentially volatile exposė that threatens to shake the very foundation of one of the bastions of the Spanish La Liga football foundations.
Most football fans will no doubt be cognisant of the vicissitudes and controversies shrouding Barcelona’s current 2019/20 season after the unexpected sacking of Ernesto Valverde that has been one of the catalysts causing friction and acrimony between the club’s sporting director, Eric Abidal, and their international mega superstar, Lionel Messi.
This is apparently just the calm before the halcyonic storm as things have suddenly taken an even crazier turn with menacing dark clouds gathering in the once azure blue skies above the Blaugrana. Stunning reports from the Spanish quarter have just surfaced exposing club president Josep Maria Bartomeu as the agent provocateur having gone to extreme lengths and resorting to less than honorable tactics to protect, and ensure the longevity of, his position at the club.
SER Catalunya, per Sport, reports that Bartomeu purportedly engaged the services of a social media company named I3 Ventures as a vehicle to mount deliberate online seditious attacks on Barcelona FC players, club legends and individuals of stature and current standing who could be potential presidents in the forthcoming club elections.
Messi – the club’s long-time benefactor and their greatest, most celebrated player ever – is one of the prime candidates targeted in the vindictive and spurious social media campaigns, being the focus of online criticism from a litany of social media accounts reportedly controlled by the company. This should come as no surprise as the superstar, revered by most as arguably the greatest footballer ever, would be considered a threat to those shady club denizens vying for power and ultimate authority while lurking in the shadows of the corridors of hierarchical bureaucracy.
Messi, with his unrivalled stature, aura and influence, is the true voice of authority that commands the respect of both players and fans not only in the Blaugrana but in the international football world.
Samples of some of the posts allegedly made by I3 Ventures were actually published for public scrutiny.
Guillem Balague has responded to the reports on Twitter, writing:
“These are some of the social media messages that the company contracted by FC Barcelona put out there. Attacks to Messi, Pique, Xavi, Puyol, Guardiola… It was supposed to help improve Bartomeu’s (and his board) image but ended up trying to discredit ‘the other side’ of the club.”
On the surface this latest leak on the Barcelona club president’s nefarious actions and hidden agendas may appear damaging to the reputation and legacy of the club. However, taking a more positive approach and viewing the overall perspectives from all angles with a more optimistic outlook, this exposé could serve the greater justice of finally extirpating all the undesired elements of human machinations, corporate malfeasance and boardroom shenanigans long festering in the uppermost echelons of power in even some of the finest and greatest football clubs globally.
And with Barcelona’s club elections looming just around the corner, unintended and unplanned airing of the dirty laundry in public at this time could well be just what the great Spanish football club need to set it on its rightful path of redemption and glory again.