Monday 5 January 2015 17:47, UK
Barcelona have terminated director of football Andoni Zubizarreta's contract with immediate effect while former captain Carles Puyol has resigned as the Spaniard's assistant.
Former Nou Camp goalkeeper Zubizarreta had been in the role for more than four years and was partly responsible for the club's transfer activity.
A club statement read: "President Josep Maria Bartomeu has decided to terminate the contract of Andoni Zubizarreta.
"The President, in the name of the club, thanks Andoni Zubizarreta for his contribution, dedication and professionalism over the last four years in his role at the head of the club’s football area."
Zubizarreta has for a while been feeling he's been mobbed from within the club, that a lot of people wanted to put the problems of the club down to him.
Barca last week lost an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CaS) against a transfer ban for breaching rules on signing young players, and the upshot is they cannot bring in any new recruits until next January.
And Sky Sports' Spanish football expert Guillem Balague says Zubizarreta has been made to shoulder all the blame for that situation and the club's relative fall from grace since Pep Guardiola's departure.
He told Sky Sports News HQ: "The change in the essence of the team has been put against Zubizarreta, and the CaS decision has also been put down as one of his mistakes because the whole club knew what was happening but nobody took action.
"On top of all that some of the signings haven't been very clever - why they haven't got a proper centre-back when they knew Carles Puyol was retiring, that has also been put against him."
Barca's president Bartomeu inherited the job following Sandro Rosell's resignation a year ago and is yet to put himself up for election by the club's members.
Balague said: "This will ease the life of the president. What's happening here is there's so much pressure outside the board for elections to take place sooner rather than later - they should be taking place in 2016.
"There's a lot of people saying 'you have to allow the season-ticket holders to choose a new president. While that happens and he's hanging on to his place..,'why don't we get rid of Zubizarreta?'
"Zubizarreta has for a while been feeling he's been mobbed from within the club, that a lot of people wanted to put the problems of the club down to him."
Zubizarreta was Barca's keeper when they won their first European Cup in 1992 and counts four La Liga titles among his other honours with the club.
Puyol then followed Zubizarreta out of the club, after less than six months in the post following his retirement from football.
He had been working under Zubizarreta since September and ruled himself out of the job after announcing that he too will be leaving the club.
The 36-year-old wrote on social media: "I want to announce that I have decided to finalise my working relationship with FC Barcelona.
"These three and a half months have given me the opportunity to see another side of the club. I've learned a lot, I'm very grateful and, now, I would like to experience other things from a different perspective and from other places.
"I want to grow both personally and professionally so that, in the future, hopefully I can return to this house and give back everything you have given me during these unforgettable years.
"I'm enormously grateful to the staff, directors, president and sporting management for trusting in me and helping me in this transition, which hasn't been at all easy for me.
"And above all to the fans, who as a player I've always felt very close to and now, since my retirement, even more so."
