Gerard Piqué to meet with Josep Maria Bartomeu after defender questions the board

Gerard Piqué will meet with Barcelona’s club president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, to discuss the defender’s public criticism of the board, according to Diario SPORT.

Piqué criticized the team’s pre-season tours, blaming them in part for a poor start to the season, saying, “The preseason did not help. I believe that this is the year in which we have had the most trips and the least training sessions. And we notice it.”

He later on made a more oblique statement: “We have to be together, the supporters and the board. When a person does not want to get angry, there are no conflicts. We know the club, we know the papers that are connected to the club, we know who writes the articles, even if they are signed by another person.”

This was taken to mean that some members of the board use the media to attack certain players.

The purpose of this meeting from Bartomeu’s perspective is reportedly to smooth things over and to ask the defender not to make these types of criticisms in public.