Barcelona fails to please its Asian fans
Asia has a lot of craze for football; so many big corporations pay big sums to big European teams to arrange visits in the country. Previously, Real Madrid got the opportunity to visit Asia, for a couple of exhibition matches for their fans. However, they largely left their fans disappointed because of their behaviour. In 2005, Real Madrid visited China, with players like David Beckham, Michael Owen, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo.
However, their behaviour was highly criticised by the Asian fans. There were incidents of late press conferences, a lack of interest shown by the players, and some players missing their public appearances. Therefore, at their departure, Real Madrid left only a negative impact in the hearts of their fans.
As Barcelona is trying to beat their rivals in every competition held in football, they also repeated the same mistakes during their visit to South Korea, this summer. Barcelona was supposed to play a match against a team of K-League, which they eventually won by 5-2. However, this did not cheer up the fans, as the tour was maligned from the very start.
First, Barcelona decided not to take their World Cup winning heroes, i.e. David Villa, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Carlos Puyol to Korea. Iniesta’s absence was logical, as he was injured, but the rest of the players had no genuine reasons. Even the organizing committee, Sports Story, made no effort to pressurize Barcelona. Also, the fans missed their opportunity to see their players, as the price of ticket was $45, which was very high compared to K-League standards.
This was not the only flaw in the whole trip; Barcelona players made the same mistakes as Read Madrid did in 2005. After getting a bad first impression, the players made no effort to improve the atmosphere. As the media tried to get hold of Barcelona stars, at the airport, no one spoke a word or showed any real enthusiasm. When Lionel Messi and Dani Alves were called for a press conference, both players were lethargic and naive, showing indifference to the happenings around them.
During the press conference, Dani Alves made a huge blunder by saying that South Korea played against Brazil, in the World Cup, and that they are a good team. In reality, they never faced South Korea. When Lionel Messi was asked a question about Korea, he went clumsy and never really answered any question. On the other hand, he showed signs of fatigue and tiredness.
Things actually got worse for Barcelona afterwards. Their coach, Pep Guardiola announced that Lionel Messi would not be featuring in the exhibition match. This was a bigger blow to the fans, who had gathered to get a glimpse of the Argentinean magician. However, after an intervention by the organizers, it was clarified that Messi would have to play for at least 30 minutes, according to the contract. However, the fines, for a breach in contract, were only minimal. After this initial statement, Guardiola gave another statement saying that Messi would only come for a practice session, but he would not star in the match.
Ultimately, Messi did play the match, but only for a brief period of 17 minutes. In that time, he scored two goals, which was the only shining moment in the whole trip. However, the speculations before his start were enough to steer down the passion of the fans.
There is no doubt that English clubs have got more popularity in Asian countries, but the Spanish clubs are also trying to match with their English rivals. This intent was also shown by La Liga director before the start of the tour. However, the behaviour of Spanish clubs would only make their reputation worse in Asian football circles. Therefore, the players must learn to behave in a proper manner, if they want to their clubs to be globally recognized.
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