Barça's tour of troubles: promoters not paying, players waiting for a call, and even an old acquaintance of Piqué's

After the disappointment of not being able to play the Joan Gamper Trophy at the new Spotify Camp Nou, something that president Joan Laporta had taken for granted, Barça is facing another new problem, this time regarding the Asian tour planned as part of the preseason, with one match in Japan and two in Korea. The squad didn't board the charter plane waiting at El Prat Airport on Thursday, according to the club, due to problems with the promoter's payment guarantees for the first friendly. The intervention of Rakuten, Barcelona's former sponsor, finally provided the solution, while the players, incredulous, awaited a call. The team, if nothing fails again, will fly out at the last minute to play the first match.

The priority was therefore to resolve the situation as quickly as possible to save the friendly in Japan against Vissel Kobe, Andrés Iniesta 's former team, scheduled for Sunday.

Initially, Barcelona announced they wouldn't be traveling because they hadn't received the five million euro payment for the first friendly. The same wasn't true for the matches they were scheduled to play in Korea, against Seoul and Daegu, for which they were owed €10 million. That part and that money were also in jeopardy, so saving the tour was crucial.

Rakuten appears

It was then that Rakuten, the firm involved in organizing the first friendly, as tickets were put on sale through its platform, offered to guarantee the outstanding amount and ensure the friendly would go ahead. The suspension not only represented a financial loss for the brand, but also a reputational loss, aside from the potential legal consequences. However, mutual mistrust prevented a solution from arriving as quickly as both parties desired.

Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani is an old acquaintance of Barcelona and Gerard Piqué , linked to the company Kosmos and the Davis Cup operation launched by the former Barça player. In fact, it was Piqué who brought him to Barcelona to sign a key sponsorship at the time, although it was with Josep Maria Bartomeu 's Barcelona, not Laporta's. The harmony is not the same today.

The situation forced Hansi Flick and his staff to change their plans, returning to lead his players' training at the Ciutat Esportiva, while the players and fans watched in disbelief as a situation beyond their control and beyond the most imaginative of predictions, although at Laporta's Barça, reality surpasses fiction. They will ultimately fly to Japan, albeit without Ter Stegen, who will undergo another back operation and will be out for three months.