Laporta: Barcelona is close to reconciliation with UEFA. We are going through a trough and look forward to a rebound in our record

Barcelona President Laporta attended an event of the Cruyff Foundation on Thursday and accepted media interviews on the club's current hot issues. He discussed Barcelona's relationship with UEFA and the European Football Club Association (EFC), among other topics.

About Barcelona’s return to EFC and its relationship with UEFA?

Yesterday, on the Champions League match day, the EFC president invited me and the club vice-president, and of course we accepted. We attended some meetings and I had the opportunity to reunite with old friends from football and we talked about a lot of things. As you know, we are working on building bridges between the Super League and UEFA.

Barcelona’s position is very clear, and relevant parties also know that we hope to reach an agreement with UEFA for the benefit of football and build bridges for the harmony of European football. I think there is room for us to move forward together and those of us who are still in the European Premier League can return to UEFA.

In principle, things are progressing and we hope it will happen. Barcelona has a very close relationship with UEFA and EFC and I think it is important that we have a place there.

Obviously, we should seize all opportunities that allow us to improve, such as some projects in the European Super League, which should be studied by UEFA. We are close to reaching a settlement agreement. We are in the process of reaching an agreement with UEFA and both Ceferin and Nasser have a position of pushing for this agreement and welcoming us back to UEFA and EFC. We are determined to take this step and reach an agreement that benefits European clubs, things are going well and we feel very comfortable that we have reached a final agreement.

How do you view the current competitive situation of the team?

We have not played well in the last two games. It is obvious that we did not play the football we wanted, and the results were not good. But it must be said that we have some injured players who are very important to the team.

What I can say is that the statements made by Flick and Deco are very appropriate. The reflections they put forward, I think, can allow the team to find the necessary reaction and motivation to get back to the track we are used to. As Deco said, if we work hard, we can win everything. At this stage of the season, everything is still up for grabs. We are going through a trough but I hope it will be sorted out after the international break.