Athletic Club President Jon Uriarte has fired back at the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and Barcelona over their handling of Nico Williams in recent weeks. Speculation over his future has reached fever pitch in recent weeks, and Athletic are not happy that the RFEF have not stepped in.
Spain have made their players available to the media regularly during Euro 2024, and that has meant Williams facing a number of questions about his future, and whether he would like to play with some of his La Roja teammates at Barcelona. Lamine Yamal has consistently stated that he would like to.
Breaking: Barcelona and Nico Williams have reached an agreement in principle. Now, Barça must find formulas to pay the winger's release clause. @DBR8
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) July 10, 2024
The public pressure was kicked up a notch by Barcelona President Joan Laporta on Monday though, when he declared that not only do Barcelona have the money to sign him, but that he was a fan of Williams. Now Uriarte has responded. He said the following as the club presented new signings Andoni Gorosabel and Alvaro Djalo, and it was released as an official statement on their website.
“Nico, a footballer very committed to Athletic Club, has been subjected to a bombardment of questions about his future in an excessive and uncontrolled manner, when he is concentrated to compete at the Euros by the Spanish Football Federation, who have not known how to protect him.”
“Respect among all the actors that make up football is a fundamental basies, or that is how we conceive it at Athletic Club, which does not have the formula of subjecting players with contracts to other clubs to public pressure to try to sign them.”
#AthleticClub President Jon Uriarte has complained about the treatment of Nico Williams.
He says the Spanish Federation have not protected him from the 'bombardment' of questions about his future, in an 'excessive' and 'uncontrolled' manner. #FCBarcelonapic.twitter.com/Qv1EoefKrK
— Football España (@footballespana_) July 11, 2024
“Athletic aspires to the maximum, without limits. We are showing that we have an attractive and winning project for our footballers and coach. The proof is that we have recently renewed two of our internationals, Unai Simon (2029) and Dani Vivian (2031), Nico signed last year until 2027, and coveted players such as Oihan Sancet, Benat Prados, Julen Agirrezabala, and Aitor Paredes, to give some examples.”
“Athletic Club is economically, socially and sportingly capable of maintaining footballers of the caliber of those named in its structure, including Nico Williams.”
Relations between Barcelona and Athletic have been frosty of late, due to the Negreira scandal and the Blaugrana pursuit of Inigo Martinez, which ended with the defender signing with Barcelona for free last summer. Talk of Williams has dominated the last few weeks though, with Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool all reportedly interested in the 21-year-old.
Hahah the lying clown laPorka selling castles made of air to mentally ill catalanimaI diIdongoIoid fanbase in a desperate hope to give an illusion of a serious club that still is relevant.
Always keep in mind that Bilbao won one more trophy than faecieIona last season, why would Nico trade down for a worse club?
PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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I wonder why Laporta who ought to know and act better behaves this way? Barcelona as an entity, likes stuff like this. I could remember when they were pursuing Cesc Fabregas back then, it was like this. If it were them(Barcelona), they would have cried, shouted and wailed. I wonder why he(Laporta), is trying to deceive the public, the financial challenges and barriers of Barcelona is well documented and much hasn’t been reported as to how close they’re to fixing it, yet he’s come out to say they can afford the signing of Williams Jnr. The very same thing he did with Messi until he couldn’t deceive the public or fans and Messi had to go. He should concentrate on fixing the mess currently faced by his club and leave other club’s players or using them to divert attention from his incompetence