FC Barcelona 2016/2017 Thread

Neymar off to PSG for 222m

Qatar gives Neymar the money so he can pay the release clause and PSG avoid the FFP.

I think that amount of money for Neymar is great bit the thing is you can only sell him once and doing it now it means 222m on useless Bartomeu hands.

He will probably sign Chupete Suazo, Chino Losada and Manolo Canabal to replace him.

You guys are in luck if the reports are true. Apparently you're going to sign Yerry Mina from Palmeiras in January for about €8-10M. It's been reported for a while that you have some sort of a first refusal on him. Would be an absolute bargain.

The guy is the next big thing, trust me. Awesome centre-back who reminds me of Piqué or Lúcio a bit, but he's better on the ball, likes to get forward a lot, is reliable defensively, good header of the ball, and just 22-years of age.

He might be unproven in Europe, but he's an absolute starter for Colombia next to Cristian Zapata. Over Davinson Sánchez, whom Spurs paid like £35m for (well worth it, though).

One thing that he brings along with himself, is that he's a major threat from set-pieces. Guarantees you like 5-7 goals every season, plus funny celebrations. He likes to appear in the box from time to time, something like this. Scored two goals in his last international match against Cameroon.

One of my favourite players.

Messi will solo this league.

Semedo is the Umtiti of 2017/2018. Everyone already loves him and he deliveres.

So, which league will Barca play in now?

I doubt the Spanish FA would want to get rid of Barcelona, considering their rivalry with Real Madrid, and how much revenue that alone brings in.

The league would get too one sided, and people generally don't want to see it happen. I think. Then again I'm not 100% aware of the situation that there is right now.

I talked to a relative who works for the European Parliament, and she said that no country is willing to back their independencia , so we'll see what will happen. Because it would set a wrong precedent and would probably get the likes of Basque country etc wanting the same. I asked her about her Catalan colleagues, that what they happen to think about the issue in hand, and apparently the topic is heavily avoided over there. Considering there are some people from Madrid as well.

Sure, I support Catalan independence. But they are trying to make a country without any legal system! This will only get worse before it gets better...

This all goes back to a 2010 ruling against some articles in the Autonomy Statute ruled as unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court - one of the most sensitive of which was denying that Catalonia is a nation. Since then there has been nothing else tabled by Madrid, untill 155 applied in response to the UDI yesterday. Although this has an immediate context of the referendum - that was approved under two laws passed in dubious circumstances and ruled unconstitutional - it wasn't as if Madrid didn't see this coming.

Catalonia is also one of the 4 regional "motors" of the EU, so it can't afford to be just thrown out as a third country.

The only country or government willing to recognize is Slovenia's Social Democrats, Venezuela and DPRK.

Yup same here.

Reading your post you certainly seem to know much more about the thing heh.. Same with my relative in a pretty high position, but I cannot exactly remember everything she told me about this yesterday. Compared it to Brexit and how it would be a huge blow to Spain's economy. So it's basically like Catalunya doesn't need Spain, while Spain is heavily dependent on them in some areas.

Venezuela? Interesting. I wonder why the likes of ex-Yugoslavia countries aren't willing to back them, because they were pretty much in a similar situation 17 years ago. Also Andorra which is next to Catalunya, and they even speak that language over there along with Portuguese etc..

Andorra is a tax haven (ironically also used by Jordi Pujol who was KRLS's predecesor for 30 yrs) that is why they don't support. Because you also have the concept of Paisos Catalans which is a claim to territory on the basis of language, to unify all Catalan-speaking areas as one country (not only Catalonia as the territory of the (fmr) autonomous community, but also Andorra, the French department of Pyrennes Orientales, La Franja del Ponent in Aragon, all of Valencian Community, all of Balearic Islands and one town in Sardignia called Alghero), driven by left-wing parties (mostly ERC & CUP) as a response to Franco.

However this idea is also VERY controversial:
1) The French Republic is one and indivisible. What if a Catalan Republic claims territory against the French one. Even more worrying - Pyrennees-Orientales has been put under a new region as part of territorial reforms called Occitanie, without any reference to the identity of Pyrennees-Orientales as Catalans. So there have been protests in the main city of that department: Perpignan, requesting to be called Pais Catala. So imagine if the Catalan Republic claims to defend their rights as Catalans?

2) Paisos Catalans is also controversial in other Spanish autonomous communities, but especially the Valencia one. The idea itself came from an author called Joan Fuster, born in the territory of what is now Valencian Community. His idea was that the flag of the regions of the Kingdom of Aragon - the senyera - is essentially the one single flag - For a single country/state. So what happened in Valencia was that they didn't know what to call their territory after Franco died during the Transition. They had various choices, each reflecting a different stance towards Spain and Catalonia: Kingdom, Land, Country, Community. They settled on Community as the most neutral position and with what is the system of autonomous communities in Spain. However, this was after a big fight over the symbols of the area, particularly the regional flag. You had a movement called, blaversime, which refers to the blue stripe in the hoist of Valencia's flag. Essentially, the City of Valencia's flag is used to represent the entire community. But all this comes from history, Valencia was conquered by Jaume I from the Moors, but instead of annexing to either the Kingdoms of Aragon or Catalonia, he made it its' own Kingdom under the confederation of the Crown of Aragon. So Valencia has its' own Generalitat and Parliament, like Catalonia does. But they are very loyal to Spain, owing to their being (varyingly) anti-Catalan.

Here you can listen to Paco Alcacer speaking the same language on Catalan RAC1 radio:


But Paco speaks Valencian and the radio presenters Catalan.

If you are fans of FC Barcelona and if you want signature you can use this one made by me.
If you want another and something like this you can start a conversation with me.