The Barcelona president held a meeting with the club captains to deny the allegation the club hired a company to disparage them on social media.
The fallout from “Barçagate” is far from over as Josep Maria Bartomeu held a talk with the Barcelona captains to convince them that the latest allegations against the are false.
The allegations from Cadena Ser claim that the club hired a company called I3 Ventures to prop of Bartomeu while at the same time disparage certain people including Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique on social media.
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According to Sport, Bartomeu told the captains that they severed ties with the company and never told them to create or publish attacks against them.
ESPN reported that while the players appreciated that the president met with them, it did not leave them feeling any better.
Apparently it left at least one club captain feeling more than uneasy.
Gerard Pique may not have bought into anything Bartomeu may have said judging by his Twitter account.
He responded to a journalist defending the board and called him a “puppet.”
Titella
— Gerard Piqué (@3gerardpique) February 18, 2020
The players have good reason not to trust Bartomeu or the board. When the allegations first came out, they denied everything but later admitted to having a working relationship with I3 Ventures. They even threatened legal action until Cadena Ser provided proof to back their claim.
The latest scandal follows the rift between Lionel Messi and Eric Abidal where the sporting director directly placed some of the responsibility of Ernesto Valverde being fired on the players. Messi came out on Instagram to defend himself and his teammates.
Bartomeu was able to restore the peace. However, this is a different story entirely.
The relationship between the board and players, especially the heavyweights, was frosty at best. Now that relationship may be completely fractured despite what is being said publicly.
With the slow but progressing decline of Barcelona, Bartomeu has been even more dependent on having the backing of the players. He may have lost all of it by now.
With more and more information coming out and the board coming across worse, the only solution may be to hold elections in the summer. Either way, the damage has been done and things may get worse before they get better.