Barca may stand Blatter up

Posted Wednesday, December 16, 2015 by Marca.com

A breakdown in Barcelona's relationship with FIFA has been common knowledge for several months now.

Almost a year ago, football's world governing body banned the Catalan club from signing any new players until January 2016 over wrongdoings involving the signing of underage players by the club's 'La Masia' youth academy. That was a massive blow for such a big club and saw several underage players forced to leave the academy's facilities in Sant Joan Despí (Barcelona).

The player who stole all the headlines was Cameroonian Patrice Sousia, who played for Barca's under-17s, and almost ended up on the street and with no help except from that offered by some of his teammates' parents. Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu, the driving force behind the 2014 "Hands off La Masia" banner firstly admitted that "administrative mistakes" had been made when signing underage players, before - once he had won the presidential elections - once again criticising FIFA, this time much more harshly than ever, especially given his usual public appearances.

"It's all so unfair and excessive and all we can do is wait until there is a change at the top of FIFA. We'll look to rebuild bridges when the time comes. It's all so unfair and incomprehensible. Protecting underage players and youngsters should be part of helping them to play the game they love", he said.