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\n Olmo is a serious doubt for El Clasico (Maria Gracia Jimenez\/Soccrates\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Torres\u2019 case is less worrying. After playing the full 90 minutes against Georgia, he was withdrawn from the squad as a precaution. The RFEF reported he was suffering from a muscle strain without any further injury and that he would return to Barcelona and Barca confirmed it was just a left hamstring strain.<\/p>\n
Those are far from the only players on Barca\u2019s injury list: Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Raphinha, goalkeeper Joan Garcia and Gavi and Marc-Andre ter Stegen (both long-term injuries) are all sidelined at present. Fermin is expected to be fit for the Saturday\u2019s game against Girona, as he has been training with the team since last week. There is no timeframe on Yamal\u2019s return but he trained with his team-mates on Monday, too.<\/p>\n
How do Barca feel about their away game against Villarreal being moved to Miami?<\/p>\n
The club see their December game against Villarreal being moved to Miami \u2014 which was effectively approved by UEFA last week<\/a> \u2014 as a great opportunity. They have been wanting to expand into the North American market for some time, as evidenced by their collaboration with Nike\u2019s Kobe Bryant arm for their third kit<\/a> and their pre-season tours to the United States.<\/p>\n The financial problems they face mean those at the club\u2019s highest levels are delighted with the opportunity to generate further income.<\/p>\n But player sentiment is another thing. Frenkie de Jong, one of the team\u2019s captains pictured above, spoke out about the plans in a press conference he gave while on international duty with the Netherlands.<\/p>\n \u201cI can understand the clubs financially, they will of course profit from it, and they can spread their brand further across the world. But I wouldn\u2019t do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not good for the players. You have to travel a lot. It\u2019s also not fair in terms of competition. For us, it\u2019s now an away match on neutral ground. I totally understand if other clubs aren\u2019t happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n President Joan Laporta responded at an event later that day in Barcelona, saying, \u201cThe club will play wherever La Liga tells them to.\u201d<\/p>\n Club sources \u2014 who, like all those cited in this article, asked to remain anonymous to speak freely \u2014 told The Athletic they were not pleased with De Jong\u2019s comments and argued they went against the club\u2019s interests. Those voices said the Dutch midfielder had been informed of this.<\/p>\n In August, Barca captain Ter Stegen was one of the players who signed a statement by the Spanish footballers\u2019 association the AFE against staging a La Liga match overseas.<\/p>\n What is going on with Barca and UEFA\/the European Super League?<\/p>\n In the 1953 romantic comedy Roman Holiday, Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn toured the Eternal City by Vespa, with memorable stops at the Colosseum and Mouth of Truth.<\/p>\n Last week, in the 2025 remake, Laporta and Paris Saint-Germain boss Nasser Al-Khelaifi enjoyed a \u201cromantic walk\u201d through Rome, posed for pictures on e-scooters and enjoyed a gala dinner at the Baths of Caracalla.<\/p>\n The original ends with us not knowing if the protagonists will live happily ever after, and in the new version\u2026 well, we are not sure yet.<\/p>\n What we do know is that Laporta was the star guest at the biggest gathering European Football Clubs has ever held, a two-day affair that featured fireworks, Italian rock stars, a drone show, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a live recording of The Overlap, FIFA president Gianni Infantino and hundreds of club executives.<\/p>\n A cynic might say it was the biggest because it was the first gathering of European Football Clubs but that is only because this was its first under its new name and logo \u2014 it was the plain old European Club Association when Laporta and his 11 fellow European Super League conspirators quit in April 2021.<\/p>\n Ten of those have already returned to the UEFA-affiliated body, leaving just Barcelona and Real Madrid in self-declared exile. And now Barcelona appear to be back.<\/p>\n Al-Khelaifi, who took over as ECA president when the ESL gang left, greeted Laporta like his best friend from school when the small Barca delegation arrived at the Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria on Wednesday. A week before, they had also happily posed in front of the cameras as they entered Barcelona\u2019s renowned Via Veneto restaurant for lunch before the Catalans faced PSG in the Champions League.<\/p>\n \n Laporta with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and Al-Khelaifi at Barca\u2019s Champions League game against PSG (Urbanandsport\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n They travelled together to Wednesday evening\u2019s dinner at the baths only for their journey to be halted by a pro-Palestinian demonstration. That forced them to embark on what Al-Khelaifi jokingly called their \u201cromantic walk\u201d. On the way, a photographer snapped them pretending to jump on Rome\u2019s rent-a-scooters.<\/p>\n On Thursday, at the general assembly itself, Al-Khelaifi opened his speech by calling Laporta their \u201cspecial guest\u201d, praising him for his turnaround job at Barca and saying \u201cfriends can disagree but they always come back together for the greater job\u201d. Laporta was not actually in the room to hear this but the point had already been made.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2238285718-scaled.jpg\")
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