B/R
Barcelona have been in a difficult place this season. On the pitch, their performances have been patchy, as they struggle psychologically to get over last year's humiliating 4-0 defeat to Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League semi-final at Anfield, the latest in several capitulations in the knockout stages of the competition in recent years.
Off the pitch, the club have been mired in controversy and infighting. Every month, it seems, team captain Lionel Messi surfaces on social media to berate the club's hierarchy. Before the suspension of the league in March, owing to the coronavirus pandemic, Barca's fans had been waving handkerchiefs at the Camp Nou in protest at club president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who is dogged by a scandal involving social media company I3 Ventures, which had allegedly been smearing his enemies, including Messi and Gerard Pique.