So where do Barca’s best interests lie?

An interesting comment from Francesc to my earlier blog on Barca and Catalan Independence prompts a follow-up .

Those who follow me on twitter will know some of the specific  technical issues that concerned me about last night’s FC Barcelona match against Granada. They included worries about Villa’s limitations as a player compared to Pedro and Alexis both of whom track back and associate with the rest of the team more than him,  Valdes’s sloppy clearances , and Song’s unconvincing performance   as centre-defender.  I was also unimpressed by Messi’s prolonged  and angry verbal exchange with Villa, which struck me at odds with the much proclaimed central ethos of Barca as a team-one for all, all for one, and no prima donnas .

It was  a game of two halves , however,  to the extent that Barca became a different team with Xavi coming off the subs bench  and putting on the captain’s band. Now that Pep has gone, this is a team that needs either Xavi or Pujol in charge of ensuring harmony on the pitch.

But Francesc’s comments returns me to a much broader  question which is likely to become increasingly debated in the coming months: where does FC Barcelona’s long-term political and economic interests lie?

Francesc suggests  that it simply does not make (presumably political or commercial)  sense for FC Barcelona to remain in La Liga when domestic games take on the character of last night’s- a clearly superior Barca frustrated for over 80 minutes by the crude tactics of a Spanish provincial town club that has been struggling with relegation and bankruptcy.The club’s real stage is in Europe although the question  of whether Europe will accept an independent Catalonia remains unresolved.

In an extensive article on the finances of Spanish football published in the September issue CNBC’s Business magazine

http://www.cnbcmagazine.com/story/kicked-in-the-teeth/1695/1/

I  note that at a football conference in Doha last November, Barca president Sandro Rosell suggested a breakaway European league might start by 2014 unless UEFA gives in to demands from the major clubs for a smaller domestic league and an expanded, if more exclusive Champions League capable of boosting its worldwide TV audience.

However, as I quote in the same article, Spain’s national coach/manager Vicente Del Bosque believes it would be a mistake to scrap the Spanish league from which he picks his players- and thinks English fans in particular , given their tribal loyalties to club teams, would lead a popular rebellion against a Super League.

Del Bosque argues instead for a Spanish league where TV revenue is more equitably distributed  although he suggests that Barca along with Real Madrid are quite happy with the status quo. He told me: “It’s not good for the future of the game to have just two clubs dominating everything although it’s going to be difficult  to change things. Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are very powerful.”

Many fans consider FC Barcelona a Catalan club but the future of the club and its place in the world remains as uncertain as the future of Catalonia itself.