Barcelona President Joan Laporta is not making many friends with the governing bodies. Remaining in the European Superleague and doing his best to avoid signing the CVC deal, neither UEFA not La Liga President Javier Tebas will have him in their good books.
Yet it isn’t all a one way street. With Barcelona facing an economic crisis which wasn’t of his creating, Laporta seems to feel that the avenues for progress are few and far between as a result of the restrictions imposed on him by La Liga.
“We do what we can. It’s difficult,” Laporta told Marca during a celebration of Catalan Sport when asked about signings for the summer.
“We are where we are. We don’t have any support nor complicity from La Liga.”
In the face of the incredible spending power from the Premier League and the seemingly bottomless reserves of Paris Saint-Germain, Laporta believes he doesn’t have enough room for manoeuvre.
“The rules of fair-play here are too restrictive, too demanding if we compare them with other countries and that’s another handicap to overcome. We are accustomed to overcoming obstacles.”
Detractors would likely point to the fact that other clubs have dealt with the restrictions without problems. Barcelona’s debt and consequent money issues are partly down to the pandemic but mostly incompetent management, although Laporta wasn’t responsible for it.