“Would have been reckless” – Joan Laporta hits out at Luis de la Fuente over Lamine Yamal debacle

Last weekend, Lamine Yamal suffered a minor injury during Spain’s UEFA Nations League victory against Denmark. Despite hopes from with the La Roja camp that the 17-year-old sensation would be fine to face Serbia three days later, he was eventually ruled out of that match, and thus returned to Barcelona.

Despite this, Barcelona were not happy with the conduct shown by the Spanish Football Federation during the incident. Joan Laporta made this clear when he spoke to Barca One, as per Relief. He also took aim at Spain head coach Luis de la Fuente over comments he made recently.

“If (de la Fuente) believes that clubs should be cautious with players, they need to grant us the authority to send players for international duty or not send them at all. They owe it to the clubs that pay them, and that must be taken into account. It’s true they only play one match with the national team, but we, the clubs, are the ones who pay the players.

“We don’t want what happened with Pedri to be repeated. Lamine suffers a lot of stumbling and to have made Lamine play Saturday and Tuesday would have been reckless, but what I don’t like is that they tried to convince him to play. Of course we made arrangements, we have to defend our interests and they understood our approach and that of the player. The correct criterion was imposed.”

Laporta: “International breaks? The mandatory rule must be changed. The player, if he has the freedom to decide, can go or not go depending on his situation. The player must be protected.”

— Barcacentre (@barcacentre) October 17, 2024

Laporta also added to this by stating that he is not in favour of the UEFA Nations League being played.

“I’m against the Nations League, they’ve slipped a competition through the back door. The rights of the players are not respected. The clubs are the ones who pay for this. It must be regulated for the benefit of the players and the clubs.”

Fortunately for Barcelona, Lamine Yamal appears to be okay. He was back in training on Thursday, which gives him a strong chance of facing Sevilla this weekend.