Now that’s a REAL blow! Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu watches game from Nou Camp with badge of rivals Madrid cheekily slapped in front of seat ahead of El Clasico with fans upset at his regime
- Josep Bartomeu watched at the Nou Camp behind a badge of rivals Real Madrid
- The under-fire president was unaware the badge had been cheekily put there
- Bartomeu is at the centre of an internal row with the club’s leading players
Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu was unknowingly the subject of a prank on Saturday when a badge of rivals Madrid was cheekily stuck on the advertising board in front of his seat at the Nou Camp.
The controversial chief is at the centre of a civil war at Barcelona with the club’s leading players such as Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique being accused of conducting a social media smear campaign against they and other former players’ reputations while enhancing his own.
Bartomeu was already unpopular at the club after the sacking Ernesto Valverde in January and claims made by sporting director Eric Abidal saying the players were responsible for the dismissal.
While sitting in his regular seat the Nou Camp to watch the Catalan club’s 5-0 victory over Eibar, Bartomeu was completely unaware that the badge of their fierce rivals had been placed in front of him for the whole game.
Josep Bartomeu unknowingly sat in the Nou Camp with a Real Madrid badge in front of him
When zoomed in you can see that it is the badge of the club’s most fierce rivals Real
The embarrassing moment comes just a week before Barca travel to the Bernabeu to face Real in a Clasico that looks as though it will have a huge bearing on who lifts the La Liga title this season.
A programme on radio platform Cadena Ser, claimed this week that the Barcelona board had hired a Data Analytics Consultant called I3Ventures to publish stories on social media that eroded the image of several players and ex-players while also improving the president’s image.
The 57-year-old has strongly denied these claims and earlier this week sought to repair the divisions by meeting with key players Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets and Sergi Roberto.
Signs of ‘Bartomeu Out’ held up by fans could be seen inside the stadium as the fractious relationship between fans, players and the club’s chiefs continues to grow.
Bartomeu has been forced to deny trying to smear the names of various key figures at the club
Signs held up by fans reading ‘Bartomeu Out’ could be seen during the 5-0 win over Eibar
One Twitter account called Justicia y dialogo en el deporte tweeted negatively about Pique’s Davis Cup involvement and another account entitled Alter Sports posted messages about Guardiola having crashed four cars.
This follows claims made by Sporting Director Eric Abidal suggesting that the players were responsible for former boss Valverde when he said ‘many players were not satisfied’ with the former boss.
This angered star man Messi who took to Instadram to say his former team-mate was ‘tarnishing everyone and fueling speculation that is not true’ by making the comments and later said he felt Abidal was ‘attacking the players’.
Sporting director Eric Abidal and star man Lionel Messi had a public war of words recently
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