One of the great things about Football Club Barcelona is the fact that it is a club owned by its members. Every four years the members can vote for one of the members to be president of the club. In the club’s statutes there also exists the right to challenge the current president with a vote of no confidence. This morning Barça member Oriol Giralt officially presented a motion for a vote of no confidence against Joan Laporta. Keep reading →

One more injury to add to the growing list. Sylvinho has a strained ligament in his right knee and he will be out of action for four weeks. Sylvinho injured himself in yesterday’s match with a heroic last ditch tackle which stopped Marcelo who looked certain to score. Logically this means he will miss Barça’s two remaining league games of the season

Joan Laporta gave a press conference this evening to confirm what had been so disgracefully leaked to the press on Monday. Pep Guardiola will take over from Frank Rijkaard as first team coach at the end of the season. Keep reading →

Barça succumbed to a vastly superior Real Madrid side tonight who celebrated their 31st Liga by beating us 4-1. Barça were never in the game and are obviously already thinking about next season or their holidays. If ever there was a game that the majority didn’t seem to want to play it was this. The humiliation of having to applaud Madrid onto the pitch did not have the desired affect of a proud reaction, instead many players looked as if they just wanted the game to be over with as quickly as possible. To make things harder the referee Perez Burrull gave a number of decisions in favour of Madrid.  Keep reading →

Barça’s last home game of the season against Mallorca has been set for Sunday 11th May kick off at 9pm. all the games this weekend will kick off at the same time. It will be the last chance to see some players at Camp Nou and will also be Frank Rijkaard’s last home game in charge. I hope the fans leave their handerchiefs at home and pay homage to a great manager. Keep reading →

Toure Yaya returns to the squad sooner than expected in time for tomorrow night’s El Clasico in Madrid (kick off 10pm). With Madrid already champions the spotlight will be on the Barça players who have to applaud the Madrid team onto the pitch. I don’t really care about the supposed embarrassment of this, what is much more important is that our players restore some pride by beating them on the pitch. Keep reading →

It’s not official yet but all the Spanish sports press are running the story that the decision was taken in a meeting of the Comision Delegada this afternoon for Pep Guardiola to take over from Frank Rijkaard as Barça’s coach at the end of the season. While I will be reasonably happy with the choice I have to question how easily these decisions are then leaked to the press. It shows an enormous lack of respect from the “leaker” for Frank Rijkaard. In my opinion Laporta should find out who told the press and act accordingly.

Dreadful news for Gabi Milito and Barça as doctors today confirmed he will need an operation on the cruciate ligaments in his right knee. Milito noticed discomfort after the Champions League game at Old Trafford and tests have now shown the extent of the damage. The recovery time is expected to be six months.

As you know I was unable to see the game but from the kind contributions of readers and also looking at the press and seeing the highlights I have worked out some ratings for the game.

Barça: Valdés 6.5, Zambrotta 6, Thuram 6.5, Puyol 7, Abidal 7; Xavi 6.5, Marquez 6 (Edmilson m73, 6) Deco 7 (Gudjohnsen m78, 7); Messi 7.5, Eto’o 6.5 (Bojan m66, 7.5), Henry 8.

Goals: m5 Messi (pen) 1-0,  m8 Xavi 2-0, m14 Henry 3-0, m58 Henry 4-0, m72 Bojan 5-0, m79 Bojan 6-0.

Barça yellows:  m25 Deco, m38 Marquez, m47 Eto’o. 

Barça need to pick themselves up after the disappointment of Tuesday night and go into the final four games of the season with the intention of finishing second in the table. A third place would mean having to play the Champions League qualifiers in August which would cause some changes in the pre-season plans. Tomorrow evening Barça take on Valencia at Camp Nou (kick off 7pm) hoping to gain revenge for the Copa del Rey defeat in March. Keep reading →