Barcelona announced only 14 hours before they would travel to Kobe, Japan, that they would not land in the land of the rising sun. The Catalan giants have canceled the first of their preseason competitions due to the non-payment of one of the promoters who organize the event.
Apart from the lack of money in Barcelona's accounts, the promoter of their Tour D-Drive has come out and doing their own crisis management. As told by Marca, the South Korean company has imposed the debt on the door of subcontractor Yasuda, who sponsor Real Sociedad, who has not provided payment or the necessary documentation. CEO Seul Ham had the following to say.
“Barcelona has made the right and responsible decision to cancel the match in Japan. We will take legal steps against the responsible Japanese entities to request compensation.”
They also accuse Yasuda of fraud and claim that Yasuda could not only have provided the right paperwork, but even had forged documents for the contracts to be fulfilled. Yasuda had until Wednesday to provide payment.
“D-Drive was planned to receive the full payment for the competition today; however, the funds did not come in. Instead, the Yasuda Group has repeatedly provided invalid and falsified documents that deceive us by falsely claiming that the payment had already been transferred to Korea.
D-Drive has assured that Barcelona can complete the second stage of their tour in South Korea, where they are confronted with FC Seoul and Daegu FC on Thursday and Monday. As reported by Sport, the decision to trust in D-Drive was largely due to the ties between the company and Spanish football.
Former Spanish sports director Albert Luque, who was accused and acquitted of coercion in the Jenni Hermoso process, has a close relationship with Barcelona director Enric Masip, a close adviser to Joan Laporta. D-Drive collaborated with the RFEF under the mandate of former President Luis Rubiales, and Fernando Soler, a former tennis player who was part of the deal to bring the Spanish Supercup to Saudi Arabia as an intermediary, is also employed by D-Drive.
Barcelona must now change their plans with just three days of cancellation period before they would travel to South Korea. Seven members of Barcelona staff are already in Japan, according to Radiocatalunya, mainly composed of security staff and chef chefs. Now, however, Barcelona has to change the visa of the entire rest of the traveling party, which would arrive from Spain and not in Japan.
That variable brings more millions of risk of Barcelona, at a time when their economy can enter into hiccups. Barcelona is said to have received € 15 million of the € 20-25 million they would earn from the Tour, but will probably have difficulty receiving the remaining 40%, and certainly not in the short term. If they cannot solve their visa situation, they cannot notice that they cannot meet their contractual obligations.