FCBARCELONA.CAT

05.09.2007 14:24

Laporta to request Catalonia v USA is played

Vanessa Forns

Joan Laporta has confirmed that the club will be sending a letter to the president of the Federación Española de Fútbol to ask for the right to hold the friendly international between Catalonia and the USA.

Following the RFEF’s decision to refuse permission for the game between Catalonia and the USA to go ahead on October 14, Joan Laporta has announced that FC Barcelona will be putting pressure on the highest authority in Spanish football, Ángel Maria Villar, to reconsider his stance.

The Barça president’s argument is that the limitation allowing just one representative game a year to be played by the regional sides in Spain only applies to home matches, and the game against Euskadi (the Basque Country) will be an away fixture. Laporta said he did not attend the Federation’s recent meeting for “professional reasons” and added that “I was not aware that this issue was going to come up, as it was not mentioned in the agenda.” He was also alarmed that the Catalan Federation “knowing that the issue was going to be dealt with, did not call to tell us.”

Political responsibility

Joan Laporta also called on all “people with political or governmental responsibility in this country…not to hide behind the clubs on these matters.” He later added that “they cannot pass the buck onto the clubs, because we neither make the laws nor discuss them.”

Along similar lines, Laporta added that it is the political authorities that “have to act in a decisive way to achieve what we have been promised, which in this case is making Catalan national teams official.”

He then said that “I don’t agree when they say that Spain doesn’t understand us, because they understand us perfectly well. The thing is that a lot of them don’t understand that Catalonia is a nation. We are clear about that, and Catalonia as a nation belongs to the international community and we have to demand our sporting rights.”

In response to Motta

Joan Laporta also had words for Thiago Motta, who on presentation as a new Atlético Madrid player accused his former president of failing to face up to things. “My reaction is one of surprise” said Laporta. “And I would like to make that clear. I have told him that I don’t understand what point he is trying to make, and asked him what means by not facing up to things, because I have always been ready to show my face to him. Whenever he wanted to speak to me, I was there for him, and I have told him that I expect an explanation for what he has said. If he doesn’t, then I’ll just assume that his comments were those of somebody immature who doesn’t have the courage to learn from his own mistakes. I suppose he will give me some kind of explanation, because I am sure he is mature enough.”

Praise for Giovani

Asked about Giovani and his contract, Laporta said “he is progressing well, as we expected. He is a top class player, and we need to look after him. I agree with what our manager and director of football have said when they say we need to take care of him, because he is still very young to be getting so much media attention in the Barça first team. He needs to take things step by step and we need to tread carefully and protect him as much as we can. The manager considers him one more member of the first team.”