“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 Relevo.

“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 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.