No Barcelona without Messi, fans tell club

Angry FC Barcelona fans chanted for the resignation of club president Josep Maria Bartomeu after captain Lionel Messi announced on Tuesday that he wished to leave the Catalan side.

“We love you, Messi stay, Messi stay!” and “Bartomeu resign!” chanted several hundred fans outside FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium on Tuesday night.

“I am very upset, for me Barca is Messi and Messi is Barca. They are the same, he is the symbol of Barca … They should erect a monument in Camp Nou.

“I don’t think this (departure) should be allowed to happen,” 80-year-old Joana Polo, wearing an FC Barcelona face mask, told Reuters on Wednesday outside Camp Nou.

The decision by the Argentine forward has thrown the club into turmoil less than two weeks after their humiliating 8-2 UEFA Champions League defeat by Bayern Munich.

“It’s a huge outrage. I never thought this would ever happen … You can take defeats in sports but I can’t handle Messi leaving,” said Oriol, 40.

“We will defend him until death. He is not the one to blame. The blame is on (FC Barcelona’s) board.”

“Total War!” daily newspaper Sport declared on its front page referring to the situation.

Messi has been named world’s best player of the year a record six times, but he has grown increasingly unhappy over the last 12 months.

His grouse is on how the club is being run under Bartomeu.

He criticised club officials for forcing players to take a pay cut to cope with the financial hit of the coronavirus pandemic.

Albert, 28, another disgruntled Barca fan, told Reuters: “They have been doing things badly for a long time and this guy (Messi) has got tired of not having a project, of not keeping the philosophy we used to have … and he said `enough is enough’.”

“The only situation available right now is for him (Bartomeu) to resign.”

After Barca surrendered the Spanish La Liga title to Real Madrid in July, Messi slammed the team as “weak” and “vulnerable” during an uncharacteristically fiery post-match interview.

Barca are in the midst of overhauling their squad following the UEFA Champions League defeat.

Some Spanish media have reported that new coach Ronald Koeman told Messi’s close friend and strike partner, Luis Suarez, that he does not wish the Uruguayan to stay at the club.

(Reuters/NAN)