Barcelona in crisis: Lionel Messi hits back at Eric Abidal's comments

Barcelona were plunged into crisis when Lionel Messi publicly called out the sporting director Eric Abidal, challenging him to name names and accusing him of tarnishing the players’ reputation. Abidal claimed Barcelona’s players had not been happy with Valverde, who was sacked on 13 January, and that they had not been working hard enough under their former manager. In response club captain Messi took to social media, saying: 'I think that when players are talked about, names should be given because, if not, we are all being dirtied and it feeds comments that are made and are not true.' Subscribe to Guardian Football ► http://is.gd/GuardianFootball Barcelona in meltdown after Lionel Messi hits back at Eric Abidal ► https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/feb/04/barcelona-meltdown-lionel-messi-eric-abidal Support the Guardian ► https://support.theguardian.com/contribute The Guardian on YouTube: The Guardian ► http://www.youtube.com/theguardian Guardian Sport ► http://bit.ly/GDNsport Guardian News ► http://www.youtube.com/guardianwires Owen Jones talks ► http://bit.ly/subsowenjones Guardian Culture ► http://is.gd/guardianculture