Bartomeu talks vote of no confidence, Messi and VAR

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An update from the club’s chief

Barcelona held a press conference on Monday night involving Josep Vives and president Josep Maria Bartomeu to discuss a number of topics.

The club officials spoke about the budget, the vote of no confidence, Lionel Messi’s future and the recent VAR controversy after El Clasico.

The vote of no confidence drew a lengthy reply, and you can read the whole thing here. To put it simply the date of November 1 and 2 was proposed, but Bartomeu says Barca need 15 days notice to be able to organize it properly because of Covid-19. For now, there’s still no confirmed date and Barca are waiting to hear back fom the Catalan government.

Here are the other main points:

Bartomeu on Messi wanting to leave

During those weeks we had to defend what was best for Barça, and what was for the best player in the world and football history to stay with us. Leo Messi had a contract, and the option of unilateral termination had expired. And the most important thing was that the sporting priority was to begin a new era with Messi in the team

Bartomeu on Koeman

I wish to thank Ronald Koeman for accepting our offer under difficult circumstances, having to make difficult, unpopular decisions in such a very difficult financial time. His personality and decisions are already making their mark.

Bartomeu on VAR

Just now when I was coming into the press conference I was informed that there are audio recordings of a lineman talking with the referee in Barcelona’s game against Real Madrid. We are going to analyse it. We have been requesting another verification of the VAR criteria for some time and we are calling for a joint reflection by the professional teams. It cannot be one way in some games and in another way in others.

Bartomeu on resigning

It never crossed my mind to resign. The project is very interesting with young players and experienced ones, like Messi. And I think that with him we are going to win a title this season. I understand everyone’s opinions, as empathizing is important. In Leo’s case is good to get angry because it is not good to accept defeats and we have all gotten angry. But there was a deadline for him to announce if he wanted to leave or not. He did not do it and he is still here. We all want him to retire at Barcelona

Source: barcablaugranes.com