THE NEVER-ENDING CRISIS
There will be nothing happening, nothing to see and nothing to say, they said. Still less anything for journalists to write about. Not at Barcelona, where even lockdown didn’t stop the show; a bizarre, sometimes surreal soap opera, a crisis unfolding in seemingly endless chapters of intrigue and accusation.
Story after story slipped out and almost none of the news on this continuous cycle was good news. At times, it was almost silly. Eventually, even some of the past characters returned, as two old rivals and one even older dived back on the scene.
All of which might even make sense, thinking about it. For so long at Barcelona it was the football that protected the club. Without the football, which is now on hold, maybe it was inevitable that things would crumble. Maybe all that other stuff would come to the surface when there were no Lionel Messi goals to keep it down. And yet, Messi was still at the heart of it, still destroying opponents.
Confused? Well not half as confused as FC Barcelona seem to be. At times it’s been hard to keep up. So, let’s try to keep it simple…even though it’s not.
In an interview in mid-February, Messi had said: “Since January there has been problem after problem.” Not only was he right but it was far from over.
Eight weeks on there have been grave accusations, boardroom coups, public rows, resignations – en mass and on their own – and bombastic returns. There’s even been a promise to change the name
