Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu spoke at the opening of the World Peñas Congress, held in the Catalonia Palau de Congresos. One of the first issues on the table was UEFA’s 30,000-euro fine, which was not contested by Barcelona: “We were fined for the flags and banners in Berlin. Nobody sees it as a sign of weakness. To the contrary, I said we’d reach the final and reach the final we did, but doing it our way. Thinking of the interests of the club and Catalonia.”
Bartomeu was also beaming as he mentioned about Barcelona’s treble success: “We’re the best club in the world; we’ve led football for many years and we’ve opened a new winning cycle that brought us the treble. We’ve got the challenge of winning six cups and being the first club to win successive Champions League titles.”
Bartomeu also turned his attentions to the Ballon d’Or, and after saying how “we’ll see how these next months pan out”, asked for the trident to be given recognitions as the final three candidates to win the award: “I hope Messi, Neymar and Suárez are the three finalists for the FIFA Ballon d’Or because they deserve it.”