Barcelona Football Club

• Nickname:Barça
• Founded:1899
• Manager:Tito Vilanova

• Ground:Nou Camp
• Capacity:98600

Barca stand firm over Messi

17 Jul 2008 - 15:29:15

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Sporting director Txiki Begiristain has revealed that Barcelona will fight to prevent Lionel Messi from playing in the Olympic Games.

Messi has been named in the Argentina squad for next month's games in Beijing, but the Catalan club have no intention of letting the diminutive playmaker compete.

The 21-year-old would miss Barca's Champions League qualifying round games should he head off on international duty.

"We are right and we will fight for Messi to play the preliminary round because he has to be with us," said Begiristain.

"We have to play two games of official nature and so we have made that known to FIFA.

"We will continue insisting but we want to come to a solution that is agreed by all the parties."