Suarez: Approached before World Cup - had other offers

[localny]

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has told CNN that Luis Suarez's contract does not contain a "no biting" clause.

- Hunter: Nothing's a given for Xavi, Casillas

The 27-year-old Uruguay striker joined Barca from Liverpool for a reported 94 million euros (75 million pounds) last month but will not play for the Catalan club until October as he is the subject of a four-month ban from football.

The punishment was handed to Suarez after he bit Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini during a World Cup match, and could yet be reduced subject to an appeal lodged with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

As things stand, he cannot train with his new Barca teammates and could not be formally unveiled as he is banned from entering the Camp Nou until his suspension is over.

ALL-TIME HIGHEST TRANSFER FEES
1) £85m Gareth Bale -- Tottenham to Real Madrid, Sept. 2013
2) £80m Cristiano Ronaldo -- Man Utd to Real Madrid, June 2009
3) £75m Luis Suarez -- Liverpool to Barcelona, July 2014
4) £71m James Rodriguez -- Monaco to Real Madrid, July 2014
5) £56m Kaka -- AC Milan to Real Madrid, June 2009
6) £55m Edinson Cavani -- Napoli to PSG, July 2013

Bartomeu revealed the Primera Division club had approached Liverpool about Suarez before the World Cup finals and stressed Barca were not dissuaded from completing the deal once the FIFA ban had been implemented.

But asked if the player had a 'no biting' clause in his contract, Bartomeu said: "No, there is no clause. If the clause did exist we wouldn't say it, but it doesn't exist."

"We didn't rethink the decision [to sign him] and we told Luis after the bite. He knows he did wrong. He apologised. That's very important for us.

"That means he knows that he did not do things properly -- and of course, coming to our city, coming to our club, there's going to be a way of managing Luis Suarez, because at Liverpool he was a perfect player. Liverpool fans can tell it, supporters can tell it."

Bartomeu refused to talk hypothetically about what course of action Barca would take if Suarez did bite a fourth opponent. The forward has already bitten Otman Bakkal, Branislav Ivanovic and Chiellini during matches.

"This is now a question," Bartomeu added. "This is a question that a lot of people now ask us.

"We cannot talk about something that could happen or not. We don't know. What we know is that we accept this responsibility and we also wants this responsibility of bringing Luis Suarez to the family of football."


"When we approached Suarez, it was before the World Cup," Bartomeu added. "We told him that he had the right age. He had the experience. Playing at Liverpool give him incredible performance also. And it was the right time for him to come to our club, to Barcelona.

"We knew from a lot of years ago that Luis Suarez likes our club, likes our city. And we have the advantage. His agent is Pep Guardiola's brother (Pere Guardiola).

"He's from Barca in his heart, also, so everything was perfect and created the perfect atmosphere that Luis Suarez accepted.

"And we know that he had better offers than our offer but he came to Barcelona"

 

[Frogfish]

"And we know that he had better offers than our offer but he came to Barcelona" ?!?!?

Monaco, PSG or Real then. Highly unlikely Monaco or Real and we know he couldn't have gone to a PL club unless the fee was over £100m. Must have been PSG.

 

[gkmacca]

And to think we were pilloried and fined heavily merely for finding out about Ziege's release clause. Barca and Real can do whatever they want. Apparently.

 

[jimmy]

And to think we were pilloried and fined heavily merely for finding out about Ziege's release clause. Barca and Real can do whatever they want. Apparently.

Looks like it indeed.

I also like this sentence:
But asked if the player had a 'no biting' clause in his contract, Bartomeu said: "No, there is no clause. If the clause did exist we wouldn't say it, but it doesn't exist."...

 

[Frogfish]

And to think we were pilloried and fined heavily merely for finding out about Ziege's release clause. Barca and Real can do whatever they want. Apparently.

Well I've no doubt that all clubs regularly suss out the feasibility or willingness of a player to move via players' agents or whoever and I'm also in no doubt others (notably Real and Barca) get away with it time after time. However in this case it doesn't say they approached Suarez without our consent :

Bartomeu revealed the Primera Division club had approached Liverpool about Suarez before the World Cup finals ..

 

[gkmacca]

Barca were talking to Suarez and his agent all through the past year, and not initially via us. They're notorious for this sort of thing and do it with impunity. We seem to be one of the few clubs that are held to account for such things. Remember the TEN month investigation into the Ziege transfer? It would have been ignored if it had been Harry Redknapp, who taps up in plain sight, or Ginsoak or Wenger, but as it was us we were denounced as if we'd committed the worst crime in the history of football, then fined by the league, then threatened with High Court action, then made to pay another big sum in compensation. All of that for asking an agent about a client's status. A similar thing happened when we made an informal inquiry about Robbie Keane - another complaint to the league, another wave of headlines suggesting we'd acted as no other club would dream of acting, and, ludicrously, we had to make a grovelling public apology and massive donation to Spurs' in-house charity! It seems that tapping up is only wrong if a club - not us, obviously - complains loudly about it. And it's usually us who are complained about. It's quite surreal. Remember Brendan Rodgers getting fined merely for telling the offal site that he was interested in Dempsey? Not tapping up at all, simply saying we'd made a formal approach to his club! And we were even threatened with having points docked simply for saying Ian Ayre had talked to Fulham's CEO! Again, Redknapp winds his window down and says more than that on a daily basis. The inconsistency is absolutely ridiculous.

 

[Frogfish]

As in all these cases since there seems to be no specifics on what constitutes a breach, or at least no willingness on behalf of UEFA / the FA to confront clubs appearing to be in breach, then nothing is done unless a club makes a formal complaint. Probably smaller clubs see this as easy £££ pickings.

 

[gkmacca]

Yes. I'm not as mad about it as I no doubt sound. I just find it bizarre. Actually, as you said, it seems to be such a lucrative option for smaller clubs it's surprising more of them don't try it on!

 

[Mystic]

It boggles the mind that other clubs get away with tapping up, yet we seem to be bought up on it, didn't Fulham have a go at us last year over Dempsey too? I seem to remember Chelsea under Peter Kenyon were doing it all over the shop.

 

[Mystic]

I'd love us to put in a compliant about Barcelona to UEFA over this, surely with the suspended ban and the Neymar fiasco, they could land in some serious shit over this.

 

[gkmacca]

It boggles the mind that other clubs get away with tapping up, yet we seem to be bought up on it, didn't Fulham have a go at us last year over Dempsey too?

Yes, as I said, it got as far as us even being threatened with a possible points deduction! And that wasn't even for tapping up, it was for us 'prematurely' acknowledging that we'd made an inquiry to the club, not the player! The contrariness of it is stunning. You could pretty much hold up any transfer that gets done these days as involving 'tapping up'; it just seems that most clubs, sensibly realising that it would rebound on their own deals, don't object. Except when one of them does!

The crazy thing is that what gets ignored is the extent of the tapping up. Whereas technically there's always a minor amount of this, the most extended and significant cases are usually ones involving Barca and Real, when the club taps up a player, then the likes of Messi get involved via the media, then various members of staff chip in - all ignoring the club that actually has the target under contract. It goes on for months, relentlessly, and is implicitly countenanced by the authorities. And yet minor cases sometimes get blown out of all proportion. It's like turning a blind eye to MPs not declaring their second or third homes whilst someone is hauled across the coals for claiming expenses for postage stamps.

 

[Oliver Twist]

The crazy thing is that what gets ignored is the extent of the tapping up. Whereas technically there's always a minor amount of this, the most extended and significant cases are usually ones involving Barca and Real, when the club taps up a player, then the likes of Messi get involved via the media, then various members of staff chip in - all ignoring the club that actually has the target under contract. It goes on for months, relentlessly, and is implicitly countenanced by the authorities.

You may well be privy to a lot more information than me, but how can you say this with any certainty at all? How does anyone know what our own MO is regarding transfers? We could be all over prospective players, just not through press mouthpieces.

My own view (based on nothing other than guesswork) is that it's rife and every club will have the sounded out the player - or his reps - about a possible move.

 

[gkmacca]

You may well be privy to a lot more information than me, but how can you say this with any certainty at all? How does anyone know what our own MO is regarding transfers? We could be all over prospective players, just not through press mouthpieces.

My own view (based on nothing other than guesswork) is that it's rife and every club will have the sounded out the player - or his reps - about a possible move.

I don't think you read my post carefully enough. I did say that all clubs do it to some extent, so I'm not sure what your point is in saying the same thing. My main concern was about the degree of it in certain cases, and the inconsistent application of the rules. As for Barca and Real, well, yes, I do know some well-placed people who cover those clubs and know all about how they behave, and it is exceptional, and, besides which, there are numerous cases well chronicled if you want to have a look.

 

[Oliver Twist]

No, I'm not bothered enough by Real or Barca's tapping up to research it! As I said - and seemingly we agree - I believe they are all at it, whatever their particular means. With some - Real and Barca with their media work - more blasé about being caught than others.