Lionel Messi has admitted that he is indeed seeing “weird things happening” at Barcelona after club president Josep Maria Bartomeu’s forced denial against crippling accusations implicating him in unethical, nefarious social media practices.
Since a Spanish radio station’s claim that LaLiga champions Barcelona contracted the services of a social media firm 13 Ventures to target and criticise key figures associated with the Catalonia side in an intense slur campaign in a bid to manage and protect president Josep Maria Bartomeu’s reputation via various popular Spanish online channels, the Catalonian giants have been steeped in scandalous cloak and dagger brouhaha that threatens to drag them deeper into the pit they have now stumbled into.
The popular premise is that I3 Ventures had been hired specifically to publish stories created with the intention of impugning the image of several current and former Barca players after they had voiced their criticism and disdain of Bartomeu.
Barcelona hastily denied any wrongdoing in an official public statement with Bartomeu saying on the club website on Tuesday: “In (the) first place, and so that no one is left in any doubt, Barca has not contracted any services to disparage neither players, nor politicians, nor former presidents. It is completely false.”
“We will defend ourselves wherever necessary via all means at our disposal against anyone who accuses (us) of such practices.”
Bartomeu admitted they had worked with the company but categorically denied all suggestions that they have acted against the club’s players.
Messi, who had been silent since the disclosure of the online scandal, finally spoke in an interview with Catalan sports publication Mundo Deportivo as reported by L’Equipe, saying he will wait to see if there is any truth in the accusations after Bartomeu’s statement.
“I was a little surprised because I was not present, I was travelling,” Messi said.
“When I arrived, I discovered it all bit by bit. The president told us the same things he said in public, the same things he said at a press conference: what was the situation, what had happened. And I cannot say more.”
“The truth is that I see weird things happening. But it was also said that there would be evidence. We will have to wait to see if it is true or not. We can’t say much and we have to wait and see what happens. Frankly, the subject seems strange to me.”
The social media exposé comes hot on the heels of Messi’s recent public calling out of sporting director Eric Abidal who had ranted in a public interview that the players did not work hard enough under former manager Ernesto Valverde, even hinting that certain key players exerted influence to remove the manager. The accusations inadvertently pointed an accusative finger at Messi, the club’s most popular figure, of course.
Valverde had been given the boot in January, with Quique Setien subsequently brought in as manager until the end of the season.
Meanwhile, Messi says he will wait and see if there is any truth in the accusations regarding Bartomeu and the ensuing online scandal. The awkward train of events has since stirred up doubts over the 32-year-old’s future at the Nou Camp but Messi was quick to express his happiness with the Catalonian city.
“I love Barcelona although I miss Rosario very much,” he said wistfully. This is my house, I was here longer than in Argentina. I love Barcelona, the place where I live, Castelldefels, and I live a life that I like very much.”