Bartomeu is such a clown, he talks about this as if it were an insult on Barca's values rather than a specific cause where Barca is clearly in the wrong. He has no legal arguments because we have none.

meh, our transfers have been and are bound to be terrible anyway. We will still have a competitive team.



pedro----------cesc--------dealofeu

---rafinha----------------roberto---

----------------song-----------

adriano----fontas-----batra----montoya


Thats good enough cover.  I believe a future gem will emerge from the above group.

Fontas was sold iirc.

bla bla bla....

Barcelona won't have any problems to sign players this summer. Worst scenario we wouldn't be able to sign players in Jan & summer 2015...

Also, Bartomeu

What makes you bow? Everything he said made me facepalm

He's being honest and speaking the truth

The way he spoke about the issue might be stupid but most of the things he mentioned are correct...

well if we manage to get signings this summer...
we need to get TWO defenders, secure our GK, secure a xavi replacement / backup
sell Mascherano / Song quickly, JDS / Afellay, Dani Alves *his contract runs out and city rumored to pay 20m for him*

if we don't get to transfer..
well in bartra we have to depend on him, rafinha for xavi, pinto or convince Valdes to stay.

Khaled wrote:He's being honest and speaking the truth

The way he spoke about the issue might be stupid but most of the things he mentioned are correct...

Yeah but they're irrelevant to the prosecution. Suppose a nobel peace laureate is arrested for breaking and entering, if the nobel laureate were to respond "Yes I did break and enter into someone else's property, but I am a stand up guy and have been recognized for my contribution to society in the past" he would look ridiculous. And that's exactly what happened here.

Agree, the way Bartomeu discussed the situation was stupid and no one is taking him seriously... They should have taken the issue more seriously from the beginning and try to solve it before reaching this stage which will damage again the image of the club...

But, I do believe that the main points he mentioned are the correct. Especially this point:

Bartomeu: "We ask FIFA to look from case to case, the circumstances of each kid, so that there can be exceptions to the rules.".

You can't treat all cases the same, especially in this case were these kids are getting a better life and the opportunity to achieve their dreams...

So what must FIFA say? "The rules apply to everyone but Barcelona"?

No, but Fifa shouldn't use a rule that is supposed to protect minors to punish a club for doing the opposite just because Fifa themselves formulated their laws in a too general way that isn't congruent with the purpose of the law. In layman terms this is like formulating a law that hurting people = jail, but not distuingishing between hurting and for example self-defence. If the purpose of the law is to protect minors and Barcelona clearly don't do any harm to minors with their youth infrastructure (where are the complaints from the minors or their parents?) yet the Fifa laws are formulated in a way that it appears as if Barcelona is doing harm to minors, then the fault lies within Fifa's laws. Bartomeu is completely right, every case has to be specifically analysed. You can't just generalize:

"If minor's parents moved to the country for non-related reasons = good."
"If minor's parents moved to the country for transfer related reason = bad."

I mean you can but it's stupid. It's like a 17 year old wonder kid from Uganda being accepted by Harvard who will provide a scholarship and everything else, parents ready to move but the US government stepping in and saying: "Nope, this is not okay. It's not good for minors. You better stay in your natural environment, kid."

BarrileteCosmico wrote:So what must FIFA say? "The rules apply to everyone but Barcelona"?

case by case, Its not just about Barcelona, but all clubs who have helping and giving opportunities for kids from other continents to fulfill their dreams. The whole point of having these rules is to protect the kids. But every rule has to have an exception, you don't treat the academies that are giving these kids and their families a chance for a better life the same way as academies that might take advantage of these kids etc...

 Its a scholarship, smart and talented kids get chance to study outside their country in a better school... I don't know how this is different...
I still can't get it, how these laws even exist especially with all the campaigns done by FIFA against racism, its kind of discrimination against kids from Africa and Asia...

But it's not like Barca's academy is the ONLY academy who doesn't 'hurt' minors, but provides them with food and education etc., now is it?

I'm assuming you are asking that because of Bart's dumb statement? I think that his approach was all wrong; too high and mighty. You should look past that and look at the core argument. And that argument isn't really all that strange or bad since La Masia does provide better circumstances to live in for some of these kids and since it is in the end all about protecting the kids and giving them the right environment to grow up in. It is just dumb that Barça let it come to this. They should've asked for a change of that article years ago and they should've put it out in the open if FIFA was unwilling (to get other clubs to support the request). They shouldn't have broken the rule and hope for no repercussions.

Just when you thought Bart could not get any lower in my estimation...

http://www.sport.es/es/noticias/barca/asi-fue-dimision-zubizarreta-3241637

Zubizaretta offered Bart his resignation, but when the information was leaked Bart refused to accept it.

Man we really need new elections!

I agree. The entire board is being run by morons that need to gtfo and are tarnishing everything about the club.

*bleep* them.

Madvillain wrote:I'm assuming you are asking that because of Bart's dumb statement? I think that his approach was all wrong; too high and mighty. You should look past that and look at the core argument. And that argument isn't really all that strange or bad since La Masia does provide better circumstances to live in for some of these kids and since it is in the end all about protecting the kids and giving them the right environment to grow up in. It is just dumb that Barça let it come to this. They should've asked for a change of that article years ago and they should've put it out in the open if FIFA was unwilling (to get other clubs to support the request). They shouldn't have broken the rule and hope for no repercussions.

Yes I agree.
I asked that because I thought it was a silly defense against accusations of wrongly registering players and breaching FIFA rules -"but they get a better life". As if La Masia was the only academy where kids can have access to a 'better life', if you want to call it that.

I don't have a clue or an opinion on the law itself- it might very well be counterproductive or stupid, but demanding Barca should be exempt from the law is just such a shockingly arrogant attitude.
Btw, I read an article the other day on how super-talented kids are actually more likely to have a great career the later they join top clubs, so..

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Yes I agree.
I asked that because I thought it was a silly defense against accusations of wrongly registering players and breaching FIFA rules -"but they get a better life". As if La Masia was the only academy where kids can have access to a 'better life', if you want to call it that.
...................

Actually this is if logical, should have been said before sanctions, not after. All can understand now this is like attempting to protect yourself with the last available chance. When there was no sanction we never even bothered to talk to Fifa or other similar clubs that a change in law would help the kids not destroy them.

Hapless_Hans wrote:

I don't have a clue or an opinion on the law itself- it might very well be counterproductive or stupid, but demanding Barca should be exempt from the law is just such a shockingly arrogant attitude.
Btw, I read an article the other day on how super-talented kids are actually more likely to have a great career the later they join top clubs, so..

so what???? you are considering a young talent has a smooth life in his country and growing up well. In that case may be it is better for him to stay in their country and join top clubs later. Also all are not of Neymar level who got focus from everywhere and had so many sponsor even to develop in his country without problems.
its not about producing Messi or Neymar, its the general players as well.. Many kids of this kind would be struggling with life in their poor country, let alone thinking about football for joining a top club later time.

Shameful from our Board as usual.
I know Laporta also signed one player infringing FIFA rules, but he would surely not have gone as long as signing 9 more players infringing the rules. He is a lawyer and he easily knew how to bend the rule, which is as easy as making the fathers move and find them a job before you sign the players.
Rosell, Bartomeu, Faus and Freixas, always destroying our club.

The law is ridiculous by the way. It is going against the kids that it is supposed to defend by not letting them play and progress. One of the best talents in the world has not been able to play for a year and will not be able to play for two years more. And they are the ones that should protect football when they are killing a football gem like Lee Seung Woo.
Shameful from FIFA either.

Fußball wrote:I mean you can but it's stupid. It's like a 17 year old wonder kid from Uganda being accepted by Harvard who will provide a scholarship and everything else, parents ready to move but the US government stepping in and saying: "Nope, this is not okay. It's not good for minors. You better stay in your natural environment, kid."

I agree with this.
But what if the kid is in a rich countries best school already? And not 17 but 13.

There simply shouldn't be any law restrictions of that kind. Civil laws and parents are there for a reason, Fifa doesn't need to come up with additional bollocks. Parents can take their children and move across the world as they wish and keep changing their kids' social environment as often as they want. In many countries there are laws that allow parents to do homeschooling instead of sending their children to a proper public school. Yet Fifa is protecting non European kids by restricting a transfer if the parents aren't moving for non-related reasons? Wat?

I mean you can totally see why it applies to non Europeans only. They obviously can't restrict European citicizens in their freedom of movement within EU borders.

in other news, Barca members approve renovations to the stadium costing around 500m for the whole renovation... guess we have money to spend now that we can't buy players   

Fußball wrote:Weak justification. They're basically just saying "okay, we didn't follow the rules regarding age and borders, but we are really very nice to the kids and teach them well. Look at Xavi, Messi, Iniesta."

Yeah, that will hold up legally.

This is the heart of the matter. The court/tribunal is only concerned with the law as it stands. Morals don't come into it. The question is whether the law was breached or not and that is the only relevant question.

In the legal case, we are already screwed up and a ban seems to be in what the appeal will end up. What we can now fight for is the delay of the activation of the ban untill the appeal result comes out. That way we can collect some food for next season or two just like ants store their winter foods   In that case i think we will have more than 100 M to spend, no??  Also other team (like wneger) will also not be able to penatrate our players or any young kid for next two seasons:lol: