Barcelona Vice-President Rafael Yuste has claimed that manager Xavi Hernandez ‘understands’ the club’s decision to arrange a friendly with Mexican side Club America in Dallas. The friendly has drawn criticism from various quarters, pointing out that the club’s short squad and repeated injury issues were unlikely to be aided by a trip of nearly 16,500km in the space of two days, and an extra game in a different time zone.
Speaking after Barcelona beat Porto in the Champions League, Yuste was asked what Xavi might think of it, given the demands for success run through having his best players fit.
“Xavi is a man who is part of the family and is a man of the club. He understands it. He knows that the friendly in Dallas is important economically and socially. We have many fans there. We have already made trips to Australia and nothing bad happened. I thank Xavi the predisposition that he always has with the club,” Yuste told Sport.
It has been pointed out that Barcelona have little right to complain about the schedule imposed upon them, when they increase the workload for their players during a scheduled break.
“Injuries are hard, but we don’t make the schedule, we have to play the games; although sometimes misfortunes happen, but the group is above those misfortunes.”
The friendly is thought to be worth in the region of €4-5m, and while all at the club are aware of their financial difficulties, the squad were reportedly unhappy about the idea. However the club have acted to quieten the discontent from the dressing room by promising a bonus in the region of €100k per head for the players.
If that were the case, it would be surprising if that were the amount, or if all of the players were earning that much money from it. Should Xavi decide to bring a squad of 25 players for the match, it would halve their profit margins on the operation.
