Leaks, scandals and mistakes leave Barcelona braced for civil war as Bartomeu prepares boardroom clear-out

Tensions at Camp Nou have reached a new high as Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu prepares a wholesale cull in the boardroom, which is set to be resisted by senior club figures. 

Bartomeu, who has been in charge of the Spanish giants since July 2015, has found his position under severe pressure this season following a series of errors. 

The president's perceived mishandling of the situation around coach Ernesto Valverde and his abrupt sacking in January without a replacement lined up was followed by the club's failure to strengthen in the same transfer period, with Barca forced to exploit a Liga loophole in order to sign Martin Braithwaite from Leganes after the window had shut when Ousmane Dembele suffered injury. 

An embarrassing, mysterious scandal over the alleged use of social media companies to sully Barca's own players followed, while most recently Lionel Messi slammed the board for suggesting that the Catalan squad was not willing to take a 70 per cent pay reduction during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Such mistakes have seen critical voices to Bartomeu's administration grow on the Blaugrana board; now the president is set to respond by removing those detractors. 

Goal has learned that Bartomeu is planning an overhaul of his management team and has given the green light to overhauling his board. Several members have been informed that they will have no part to play in the new-look team of directors, including Emili Rousaud, who had been tipped as the president's favoured successor in the post. 

As recently as January, Rousaud had been confirmed as Barcelona's vice-president. Bartomeu, however, has cut ties with the official and wants him out, prompting the discarded director to launch strong criticisms of his regime. 

"Bartomeu told me he wanted to revamp the board and he was annoyed with certain directors, myself included," he explained to Cadena SER on Wednesday. 

"He told me that there had been leaks which upset the players and that I was casting doubt on the board's work. I told Bartomeu that I speak to the press but I do not cause leaks, and I have never criticised the players. 

"The best thing to do would be to talk face to face once the state of emergency has passed, I told him to give me time to think to answer him properly... but I think it's cowardly to do this over the phone and without warning." 

Rousaud has already made it clear that he will not willingly resign his post, setting the stage for another boardroom battle of wills against the unpopular chief. 

Bartomeu has already survived one attempt to dethrone him in 2020, when an impromptu board meeting following the social media scandal tried to convince him to resign his post and call early elections. 

Such a move would have left Rousaud as the prime candidate to take over but, after seeing off that attack, revenge is now on the cards for the Barca president, with his former dauphin first on the list. For his part Rousaud insists that early elections and not resignation was the aim of the meeting, adding to Cadena SER "that was probably most convenient, most of us leaned towards that option but nothing happened."