Messi and Bartomeu salary-cut battle exposes Barcelona divisions again

The Blaugrana skipper has lashed out at figures inside the club trying to discredit the players, suggesting that a civil war is edging ever closer
During his solitary season as Barcelona coach, Bobby Robson regularly used to ask himself, "Do I need this in my life?"

The affable Englishman had naively presumed that his job was to merely "try to win football matches. I didn't come for this political battle."

But that's what Barcelona was, and remains: a colossal political battle.

"Football here... is about power, about the necessity of winning," Robson told author Jimmy Burns. "It's about this city and about Catalonia. The army cannot be defeated..."

The army, as Robson saw it, was the press, the key tool in influencing public opinion.
 

Essentially, whoever controlled the press, controlled the club.

Perception, therefore, is key. Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu knows that. As does Lionel Messi.

Which is why the two most important figures at Camp Nou presently find themselves on the opposite sides of a battle for control of the narrative surrounding the Barca players' salary cut.

On Monday, it was announced that Messi and his colleagues had agreed to wage reductions of up to 70 per cent in order to limit their club's losses during the Covid-19 crisis, which has caused a suspension of all footballing activity in Spain – one of the European countries worst affected by the pandemic.

In addition, the captain revealed that the players would "also make contributions so that club employees can collect 100 per cent of their salary while this situation lasts."





GOAL