Barcelona failed to support Messi

Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta says the club should have better supported Lionel Messi during his tax fraud trial and also criticised the Blaugrana board for renewing the shirt sponsorship deal with Qatar Airways for well below the current market rate.

After Messi and his father, Jorge, were found guilty by a Barcelona court of three counts of defrauding the tax department and handed down suspended jail sentences of 21 months, Barcelona launched a controversial #WeAreAllLeoMessi campaign urging fans to ‘express their sympathy’ with a player who the club said had been unfairly treated by the authorities.

Some reports have suggested that Barca’s show of support was motivated by fear that Messi was now planning to let his contract run down until 2018 and then leave the Camp Nou.

It also came amid a feeling that in recent years the club has spent more time and resources defending themselves over the controversial 2013 Neymar signing than they have on helping Messi through his various legal issues.

Speaking to Catalunya Radio, Laporta, a long-time critic of current Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu and predecessor Sandro Rosell, said it was striking that no senior Blaugrana figure had accompanied Messi to court when the player was giving evidence in early June 2016.

‘The club was not up to the level of the player, the best player in history, the best player in the world,’ Laporta said. ‘We find ourselves with a president and a board who did not even go with him when he went to testify in court.’

Laporta, the Camp Nou chief from 2003-2010, was defeated in elections held in the summer of 2015, after Bartomeu had spoken during the campaign about ending the relationship with Qatar for ethical reasons. Bartomeu also said that he had another sponsor lined up to pay big money.

This week it was surprisingly announced that the shirt deal with Qatar Airways was being renewed for 12 months, on the same terms as the previous contract which was first agreed in 2010, meaning the Camp Nou outfit will take in about half the £52 million-a-season received by market leaders Manchester United.

Barca marketing and communications vice-president Manel Arroyo has defended the deal, claiming long-term benefits which are not just about the total sum being paid.

Laporta said he cannot understand what has happened while saying he is suspicious of the motives behind individuals on the board.

‘It is one more lie,’ he said. ‘In the election campaign they said they would sign a sponsor for more than €60 million and this is not at the top market rate. I don`t understand why they have done it this way.

‘There is always suspicion as they are paying, by my reckoning, less than Barca should be getting. It is also the case that some directors have had, and still have, business links with Qatar.’

Laporta’s own time in charge at Barca was marred by allegations he himself had used the position to benefit through connections with the dictatorial regime in Uzbekistan.

Rosell and Bartomeu were both initially directors on Laporta’s board, but they resigned after a falling out in 2005. Recent years have seen an ongoing bitter feud between the two competing camps.