Pique tears into Barcelona over 'barbaric' treatment of Messi

Gerard Pique has expressed his displeasure with the club hierarchy over the turmoil that has been going on for a while at FC Barcelona.

Under the watch of president Josep Maria Bartomeu, FC Barcelona have generated a multitude of headlines for wrong reasons concerning both on and off-field issues.

A massive controversy stirred up when it was brought to attention that an inside job was carried out aimed at impairing the integrity and public image of some of the figures associated with the club.

Allegedly, I3 Ventures were handed the responsibility of cleaning up Bartomeu’s image at the expense of other popular Barca figures, including Lionel Messi.

Commonly known as Barcagate, the scandal allegedly involved the club paying up the social media agency to create fake online profiles and criticize current players as well as of the past.

In an interview with La Vanguardia, Catalonia’s biggest newspaper, Gerard Pique has brought up the incident insisting that it saddens him deeply.

Pique told: “I don’t want to get on badly with anyone but there have been times, like the issue of social networks. As a Barca player, I see that my club has spent money, money that went to criticizing not only people with a historical relationship with the club, but active players – and that is barbaric.

“I asked [Bartomeu] for an explanation and what he told me was: ‘Gerard, I didn’t know’, and I believed it.

“Then, later, we see that the person in charge of hiring those services is still working at the club. That hurts me a lot.”