In an interview Josep Maria Bartomeu gave to the Catalan radio station RAC1, the Club’s new President made it quite clear that Messi: “is not for sale” and insisted that Barça would be negotiating a new contract with him soon. “We want to sit down, without any rush, with Leo’s father  - it’s not something that’s happening tomorrow, we have plenty of time, but we will do what we have to to ensure he’s the best paid player”. Bartomeu also explained that Martin Montoya’s contract renewal “is at the end of the process and we have started talks with Gerard Piqué” about his renewal.

Neymar contract

Bartomeu also admitted that before his first press conference, when he explained the full details of Neymar’s transfer, he spoke to the first team players: “I explained to the captains that we would be showing details of Neymar’s contract. We have to be grateful to Neymar that he came here, when he could have earned more money at other clubs”.

Bartomeu also revealed that he would not be making any changes in the Club’s executive structure: “we ratified the executive team – they are doing a great job, they are reducing our debt and that will make us more efficient in the future”.

The first team players helped in the making of the video the Club has produced to mark the Chinese New Year, which occurs next Friday, January 31. Neymar, Piqué, Pedro and Sergi Roberto all feature in the video and speak to the fans in Mandarin Chinese. The tradition in China is to associate an animal with each year and for 2014, this is the Year of the Horse.

During the 30 second video, Neymar and Gerard Piqué wish the fans “a happy Chinese New Year”, whilst Sergi Roberto hopes they have “good luck” and Pedro asks them to “keep supporting our team”. All four also show their names written in Mandarin Chinese script.

It’s the third straight year that FC Barcelona has taken part in celebrating the Chinese New Year through its principal ambassadors – its players – a symbol of its special interest in China, a country with millions of Barça fans, which has led to numerous events to strengthen ties. The most recent was the ‘Barcelona Action’ competition which Barça organises with the Catalunya Turisme organisation and which involves a week of travelling through Catalonia, culminating on a game at the Camp Nou.

The FC Barcelona website in Chinese - www.fcbarcelona.cn – receives the second highest number of visitors at the Club, with 500.000 unique users a week, only just behind the English language version. On days like this Saturday, when the team play Valencia at four in the afternoon – peak hours in China – the Chinese site could easily be the most visited site of the day.

Special contents

During the week leading up to the holiday, the Club has introduced a number of features to its website and via its official Tencent Weibo (t.qq.com/fcbarcelona) social network page, where Barça has 3 million fans – the largest of any sporting organisation in the country.

The Chinese fans can also enjoy a number of contents related to Barça and the New Year, such as special news items, photo galleries, videos and digital assets such as a commemorative screen shots.

A delegation from the Board of Directors of the Catalan Football Federation (FCF) led by their president, Andreu Subies, were in the presidential box of the Camp Nou this evening for the Cup tie against Levante. FC Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu  and vice-president Jordi Mestre hosted the delegation.

This Thursday the draw, in the presence of a Notary, was held at FC Barcelona offices, for the 1,870 tickets that the Club has been allocated for its members, for the Champions League match against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium (February 18 , at 20.45) . The cut-off number is 109, so from that number we will start to allocate the tickets available.

It’s worth remembering that FC Barcelona members had requested 3,370 tickets, grouped together in 1,398 requests, in a process that closed on Wednesday at 19.00.

From this Thursday on the Club will contact the winning members, for payment of the tickets, and communicate collection instructions. Please note that the tickets must be collected in person by the member who will be using them. In the event that the member is unable to collect them personally, the name and ID of the person who will pick them up, with the corresponding authorization, must be communicated. This person can only collect up to eight tickets.

This Saturday, for the league match between Barça and Valencia, the first team players will be wearing the letter symbolising the horse in Chinese tradition. That is the animal of the New Chinese Year, which begins on January 31.

This single-edition shirt will also be worn on a day when the 16.00 kick-off is especially convenient for Asian viewers. In fact, Beijing TV will be showing the game live at 23.00 for the whole of China. Fox Asia will be broadcasting the game in India and Indonesia, as will RS Sports in Thailand and WOWOW in Japan.

The symbol of the horse is FC Barcelona’s way of commemorating this important occasion in China. The first team players have also appeared in a special video in which they send their Chinese fans their best wishes for the New Year. Neymar, Piqué, Pedro and Sergi Roberto appear in the short film addressing supporters in Mandarin, for which they all specially learned how to say certain phrases in the language.

Last year, FC Barcelona also celebrated the coming of the Chinese New Year in the build-up to the game with Getafe on February 10. Both captains walked onto the pitch with children wearing commemorative T-shirts, and the team posed for a photo with a special message for their Chinese fans.

Half a million single users a week

Barça has its own Chinese language website at www.fcbarcelona.cn, the second most visited version of all with 500,000 single users a week. Only the English site gets more hits. On some days, and the day of the 16.00 start against Valencia is sure to be one of these, the Mandarin version of the site can even become the most visited of the day.

The new online store will give supporters access to the full range of FC Barcelona branded and seasonal products, as well as the complete Nike soccer collection. Fans that visit the web (www.nike.com/fcb) will also be able to read stories about FC Barcelona players and events. Thanks to this new online experience, consumers can enjoy such services as free postal and packaging for purchases over 50 euros and free returns, as well as the personalisation of shirts and other products online.

Remember that FC Barcelona members get a 10% discount when they use the promotional code that they receive by email. The official FCB online store is totally integrated in the nike.com platform with its own website, which is available in 19 European countries, and to begin with will be offered in five languages (English, Spanish, French, German and Italian).

Later in 2014, a Catalan version of the Barça online store will also be launched. Thanks to this agreement, Nike will also be translating its entire website into Catalan, and not only the products related with FC Barcelona.

Visit the new official online store at www.nike.com/fcb

FC Barcelona capped off the Chinese New Year celebrations with the match at the Camp Nou against Valencia. The Blaugrana, who donned a kit that features the Chinese symbol for the horse, paid tribute to the Chinese community in Barcelona right before kick off. The fans at the Camp Nou enjoyed the traditional Chinese Dragon and Lion dance put on by the Union of Chinese Associations in Catalonia, the Confucius Barcelona Institute and the Asia House.

The Chinese community welcomed the Chinese New Year on the streets of Barcelona and for the first time, all of the Chinese Associations of Catalonia joined together in celebration at the Sagrada Familia. The celebrations continued hours later at the Camp Nou, just before kick off.

Special Chinese content

The presence of the Chinese character on Barça’s kit wasn’t the only cause for celebration for Chinese fans watching the game live on Beijing TV. For the last couple of days the Club has produced special Chinese content in the run-up to the New Year. Players like Neymar, Piqué, Pedro and Sergi Roberto congratulated Chinese fans in Mandarin at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper in a spot filmed earlier this week.

FC Barcelona continue to grow in China as digital content produced by on the Club's Chinese website www.fcbarcelona.cn and on Tencent Weibo t.qq.com/fcbarcelona is extremely successful.

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Press conference to present the new Espai Barça.Vice-Presidents , Javier Faus and Jordi Cardoner, as well as the Director of the Economic Area (Assets), Jordi Moix are attending the press conference.

VIDEO – this is how the new Espai Barça will take shape:

During this afternoon’s press conference on the Espai Barça, Javier Faus, economic vice-president of the Club, explained that the estimated cost of the project will be be 600 million euros and he noted that Barça members will not be called upon to foot the bill. Faus also declared that “the first team sporting project and the Club’s professional teams will not be at risk.”

What is the Espai Barça?

In addition to remodeling the Camp Nou and increasing its capacity to 105,000 (known as the ENEA project), the Espai Barça will also boast a new Palau Blaugrana with a capacity of 12,000, an additional court with a capacity of 2,000, an ice rink, the Social Area, Commercial Area, Club offices, La Masia and 5,000 parking spaces. The Espai Barça “is and will be the most important sports project in Europe and the world. No city can boast a project like ours,” insisted Faus.

The cost of the Nou Camp Nou will be 400 million euros

Increasing the capacity of the stadium to over 100,000, building a roof over the stands, making the stadium more comfortable, and improving visibility for the fans are the main features of the Nou Camp Nou. Construction will start in 2017 and end in 2021, and the total cost will be 600 million euros – this includes the new Palau Blaugrana and the additional projects around the Camp Nou.

“We won’t ask members to pay for the project, and we won’t increase the price for season tickets,” said Faus. “The Espai Barça will not put the Club’s professional teams at risk.”

Club members will have the necessary information ahead of the referendum

The Club will do everything in its power to make information on the construction project available to the Club members, but certain questions won’t be possible to answer until an architect is selected to complete the project and the design of the Espai Barça is completed.  “We will have a world wide contest before we select the definitive project,” said Faus.

“Next season we won’t have bank debt”

The stadium will cost 420 million euros, the Palau 90, parking 40, the Espai Barça 30, and the demolition of the Mini, approximately 20. “This project won’t be paid for by a millionaire, we will pay for it. We aren’t concerned with who will lend us the money, what can preoccupy us is how we are going to give it back without putting our athletic excellence at risk,” said Faus.

“We’re close to a cash flow of 100 million euros. If we get to 110 million euros we can sign new players and budget for the new project. Up until now we’ve reduced our debt. Starting next season we won’t have bank, Social Security or Treasury debt.”

On the surname of the Camp Nou, Faus said that the decision will put to the Assembly. “We will never lose our name, the Camp Nou, but the Board of Directors will have to select the best offer,” he said. Faus added that the Club could net a total of 150 million euros if the decision to add a surname to the stadium is approved. This sum could go up to 300 million if the Club decided to sell the naming rights of the stadium, but the vice-president noted that the option is not being considered. Finally he said that “if members believe that the Camp Nou should have a commercial name, they need to vote no during the referendum.”

At a press conference to present the new Barça stadium, the director of the Patrimonial Department, Jordi Moix, has presented further details of the proposal: the construction of a new Camp Nou over the current structure (being called the ‘ENEA’) will be put to a referendum on April 5 or 6. The cost will be 420 million euros. "Once accepted, and as the project has been carefully planned and defined, we will be able to avoid fluctuations in costs”, he insisted. It is a highly ambitious project – the current interior construction of the Camp Nou occupies 40,000 m², but once the work has been completed, that figure will have risen to 104,000 m².

Moix started by explaining issues concerning the general physical layout of the new stadium, whose exact capacity will be 105,053 spectators. The Camp Nou will continue to consist of three tiers. The first (lowest) will be completely rebuilt, being more vertical and offering much better views. The second will be the same, although some changes will make it more comfortable. And the third (top) tier, which currently only reaches round a section of the full perimeter will be extended to cover the west side of the stadium too.

Due to these changes, slightly wider seats will be possible, and all of the passages will be at least 1.20 metres wide. All of the seats will be protected from the elements by a roof, there will be a new perimeter ring containing different services, a full range of elevators, and the floors, currently on different levels, will be streamlined, thus avoiding the presence of so many unnecessary stairways. The ENEA project will also provide 5,000 parking spaces as well as a whole range of new commercial and operative features.

No effect on the team

Jordi Moix also explained how the construction will be done in phases. The work will start in 2017 with the demolishing of the South and North Goal terraces.

The whole process will take four summers and three and a half seasons, but the football team will be able to continue playing matches in the stadium regardless, and very few spectators will need to move. Moix explained that in order to limit the inconvenience to fans as much as possible, the construction will be done by phases and zones. In the summer, work will be done on the seating areas, and during the football season, the inner and outer sections of the main construction will be developed. The work should end in March 2021, but the directors wished to make it clear that this is still just an estimated outline, and that planning, licensing and other matters will no doubt cause certain adjustments.

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This Monday, FC Barcelona has presented new details about the possible future Espai Barça and the schedule for the referendum at which the members will be able to vote whether or not to go ahead with the remodelling of the club’s 20 hectares in the district of Les Corts. Vice-presidents Javier Faus and Jordi Cardoner, and the director of the Patrimonial Department, Jordi Moix, all members of the commission that is dealing with this process, were in charge of explaining the details to the press.

Biggest in the world

Javier Faus, the economic vice-president who is chairing the commission, said that the Espai Barça “is and will be the most important sports project in Europe and the world. No city can boast a project like ours”. The idea involves “the construction of a new stadium for 105,000 spectators, a Palau for 12,000 spectators, a Palau 2, an Ice Rink, a social and commercial zone, more modern offices, a rehabilitated Masia and 5,000 parking spaces.” Faus insisted that nothing quite like this has ever been seen anywhere in the world.

Structural improvements

Jordi Moix explained that the most substantial changes will be a complete overhaul of the lowest tier, where the views will be vastly improved, the extension of the tier around the whole stadium, and the addition of a roof over the whole of the terraces. The Camp Nou would also make a substantial gain in overall space – a rise from 40,000 m2 to 104,000 m2.

Schedule

In order for the members to quite sure what they are voting for when the referendum comes around, the Club is going to go to an extraordinary effort to inform the fans about the proposed new Espai Barça. Faus also insisted that this is just a proposal rather than a definitive project, and if the members voice their approval, the plans will need to be fine-tuned, there will be conversations with local residents and then the project will be submitted for international tender. Once the architect has been chosen, work will be able to commence in 2017 and should end in 2021. But the work on the terracing will only be done in the summer, meaning that very few spectators will be affected and the first team will be able to continue playing in the stadium while the work is going on.

It’s worth noting that these images of the new Espai Barça are meant to give the viewer a genera overview of the project given that its final details have yet to be decided.

FC Barcelona have launched a new application that facilitates the Seient Lliure process for Club members. With this app, members will be able to free up their seat at the Camp Nou comfortably and easily. Basketball season ticket holders will also be able to utilise the app.

The application, which is available in three different languages (English, Catalan and Spanish), works on any smartphone device and is available in the App Store and on Google Play.

Other services

With this tool, which keeps a record of your data and access codes (so you don’t have to input your information more than once), the user will be able to manage more than one account, keep track of the amount of money saved over a season and activate an alert system for home matches.

It’s worth noting that season ticket holders that cannot attend a match at the Camp Nou can also free up their seat on the Club’s website, on Ticketmaster and over the phone 902 18 99 00.

App download links

[+] iTunes App Store

[+] Google Play

Before the Cup semi-final against Real Sociedad, President Bartomeu gave Francois Pienaar, former player and captain South Africa’s rugby World Cup winning team, an FC Barcelona rugby kit. Paco Peña, the technical director of the team, and Stacy Duvenage were present.

The legendary No.6 of the South African rugby team received the the world champions trophy from Nelson Mandela in 1995. After the award ceremony, Pienaar thanked Mandela in a conversation that’s made its way into the history books: “Thank you, François, for what you’ve done for this country,” started Mandela. Pienaar responded: “No, Mr president, thank you for what you’ve done for our country.”

The competition allowed Mandela, who was elected president the year prior, to unite the country through sport. South Africa’s motto for the tournament was “one sport, one country.” After the championship match, Pienaar explained that the team won “not only for the people in the stadium, but for the everyone in South Africa.”

After Nelson Mandela’s funeral, Francois Pienaar explained, “Nelson Mandela was the most extraordinary and incredible human being, not only because he unified a country when it seemed impossible, but also because, through his humanity, he inspired hundreds of millions of people throughout the world.”

More than 5.5 million Chinese viewers have seen the video message for the Chinese New Year made by the Barça players for their fans in China. The programme Total Soccer on the Chinese public TV station CCTV announced the message on its webpage a few days before the Chinese New Year and on January 27 the video was shown on peak time on CCTV.

On January 31 the Chinese people celebrated the New Year of the Horse  and the video message from Neymar, Piqué, Pedro and Sergi Roberto was shown all over the country, not just on TV, but also on internet via the Club’s official page (www.fcbarcelona.cn), its official account on Tencent Weibo (t.qq.com/fcbarcelona) and the web pages of Tencant Sports and Tencent International Football.

The special contents produced to celebrate the New Year generated more than 831.000 visits to the Club’s official website, with the video, a feature on the “making of” the spot and a picture of Messi wearing a shirt with the symbol of a horse amongst the favourites.

Growth of Chinese site

Over the New Year period as a whole, weekly visits to the Chinese site has grown by 128%  and on the day that the video was launched the audience was three times the normal number.

Most viralised contents

On Tencent Weibo the most viralised contents have been the video of Messi signing for all his Chinese fans, the photo gallery of Messi with the special Year of the Horse shirt and the piece about the photo competition for Chinese fans celebrating the Chinese New Year.

Below is the video of the “making of” the Chinese New Year video, with, Neymar Jr, Gerard Piqué, Pedro Rodríguez and Sergi Roberto

FC Barcelona are launching a new pack of LINE “stickers” for their messaging service for smart phones and computers for their members and fans. The 40 new figures allow you to personalise your messaging and show your support for the team via images of Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Cesc, Valdés, Piqué and Cesc. The pack also includes “stickers” celebrating Saint Valentine’s Day on February 14.

17 million followers

FC Barcelona continues to increase their users via LINE – the application for smart phones and computers which allows you to connect with more than 300 million users all over the world. Via its official Club profiles in Catalan, Castilian, English, Portuguese and Japanese, Barça have more than 17 million followers.

The second packet – which has unlimited availability- can be purchased for €1.79 at the mobile app shop for Android and iOS. With LINE, you can connect to the Club and be the first to hear the latest news, as well as enjoying exclusive offers.

Complete your collection of ‘stickers’

This second packet of stickers completes the collection of Barça player stickers and widens the possibilities of communicating with your LINE friends and share different emotions and actions carried out by your favourite Barça players.

LINE FCB

This Monday Miguel Cardenal, president of the Superior Sports Council (CSD), and Javier Tebas, president of the National Professional Football League, unveiled the anti-piracy campaign titled “When you engage in piracy, you hurt your team.” The campaign is designed to curb fraudulent viewing of audiovisual materials relating to the LFP and it aims to remind fans that piracy seriously damages the interests of their favourite clubs.

Therefore, the LFP has launched the campaign on TV, radio, social media and at first and second division stadiums to let fans know that if they engage in piracy, that they hurt their team. Carles Puyol and Andrés Iniesta, representing FC Barcelona, participated in the campaign.

During the press conference following the Board of Directors meeting, President Josep Maria Bartomeu talked about the future of the Espai Barça project and the Club’s aspirations for the football and basketball teams.

Firstly, Bartomeu said that many Club members expressed their “support for the creation of the Espai Barça.” At the same time he admitted that he’s noticed “the concern over how this strategic project will be funded.” He was clear that “the Espai Barça is economically viable and absolutely necessary.”

According to the president, “the Espai Barça is an ambitious project.” He reiterated that “it’s a Club project, not the Board of Directors’. Anyone in our position would do this, I’d even venture to say that we’re a bit late in starting the process.”

In addition, the president talked about the Club’s investment in the Sant Joan Despí (30 million) and the Les Corts area (20 million) in the three and a half years the current Board has been in power. He also specified the maintenance and repair costs for the Camp Nou cost 7 million during the Board’s tenure and he estimated that 56 million more would be needed through 2021.

It’s time for the fans

Bartomeu then talked about attendance at the Camp Nou and he sent a message to the fans ahead of the final stretch of the season: “This is the moment to accompany the team. We have a very good team and we are ambitious.” He added: “We’re La Liga leaders – recovering the top spot is a morale boost for us.”

The president also talked about the basketball team, who were finalists in the Copa del Rey. “I congratulate them for their brilliant run in the Cup and their positive progression in form.”

Finally, Bartomeu talked about the action of responsibility that weighs on the previous administration: “I will take it to the Board before the end of the season. They have asked us to withdraw our case and I want to discuss our options.”