Inside Spain is a weekly instalment brought to you by Football España, providing an insight into all of the major stories coming out of the rich and intense climes of La Liga and beyond.
Barcelona President Joan Laporta has thus far escaped the heat. However this week it was revealed that Laporta would be included in the bribery case levelled against the club and two former presidents for the payment of €7.3m to the former Vice-President of the Referees Committee, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.
And yet Laporta, through either political charisma or honest confidence, seems pretty relaxed. And that is exactly what he told Barcelona fans to do on Thursday, explaining that he expected the case to be archived, despite a court magistrate writing that ‘logically it could be presumed that Barcelona were getting the results they wanted from those payments’ from a ‘group of corrupt referees’. Only time will tell, but there are some questions Barcelona and Laporta have yet to answer.
Elsewhere, Real Madrid’s continue to spend their week drooling over Jude Bellingham, in one of the largest love-ins seen in the Spanish capital. They also think they have another future superstar in Arda Guler. The 18-year-old Turkish wonderkid could finally make his debut this weekend after injury, but has already been tagged with the ‘better than Messi’ line…
Meanwhile, both Barcelona and Real Madrid are looking to bring in one of Messi’s favourite teammates. Julian Alvarez of Manchester City has been linked with Barcelona in the past, and there has been various reports this week that both of the Clasico duo have been in contact with his agents over a move. Whether Manchester City are open to that or not, it generally means his agent feels he deserves a better contract, or one elsewhere.
Cometh the international break, cometh the sackings. Almeria are bottom and Vicente Moreno is no more, after Gaizka Garitano replaced him. Only Real Madrid spent more (net) this summer, so he will be hoping to turn it round for their talented young side. Sevilla are onto their fourth manager this campaign, with Europa League winner Jose Luis Mendilibar barely making it past six months in a bittersweet short time at the club. Former Uruguay and Inter Miami manager Diego Alonso has taken over, but he has a tough task on his hands too.
Finally, Spain will be hosting the World Cup with Morocco and Portugal in 2024. It appears the Santiago Bernabeu will host the final, amidst much Catalan sniffing, while Spain have also settled on eight of their ten or eleven venues for the competition.
