After months of unrest, FC Barcelona is finally sinking into chaos: Six days before the presidential election, the club is headed by superstar Lionel Messi and national goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen given several provisional arrests in a raid. This was confirmed by a spokesman for the Catalan regional police on Monday for the AFP news agency, but without naming any names.
Officials from the financial crime department were responsible for the operation in the Camp Nou offices, it said. The Spanish Radio station Cadena Ser According to one of those arrested, Barca’s ex-president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who resigned in October. Also managing director Oscar Grau and Roman Gomez Ponti, head of the legal department, are said to have been removed. The club promised the authorities full cooperation in a statement, but also referred to the presumption of innocence among all those concerned. Barca did not mention names either.
Connections with the “Barcagate” affair?
According to Spanish media reports, the raid is related to the “Barcagate” affair last year. Club officials are said to have commissioned a company to defame former and current players in the social networks who had criticized the then President Bartomeu. Barca are said to have paid a million euros for it.
It was just one of many negative headlines from the environment of the 26-time Spanish champion in the past few months. Last summer, a power struggle between star player Messi and Bartomeu kept the Catalan metropolis in suspense. While Messi finally failed to carry out his threatened departure, Bartomeu resigned like the rest of the board.
What remained is a catastrophic financial situation. The mountain of debt is over a billion euros, according to an economic report by the club from the end of January, the short-term liabilities are 730.6 million euros. On leaked contract paper from Messi, who is expected to collect a total of over 500 million euros between 2017 and 2021, caused additional unrest.
The Catalans would be busy enough with their sporting imbalance, because they are lagging behind their great claims. In the Champions League, Barcelona are facing the earliest out in 14 years, in the first leg of the last 16 against Paris St. Germain it was a 1: 4 swatter. And in the domestic league, the gap to leaders Atletico Madrid is already five points.
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