Barcelona have just sacked a player from the club within hours of signing him, after it was discovered that he sent tweets which were deemed offensive to Barcelona and the surrounding Catalonia area.
Sergi Guardiola, who is no relation to the Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola, was announced as a new signing for the club on Monday. The contract however, was terminated just hours later upon the discovery of messages in his Twitter account from two years previous.
One message, dated October 2013, read:
'Hala Madrid, p*** cataluna' which translates to the 24 year-old calling a user a Catalonian b*t**.
Barcelona have terminated the contract of Sergi Guardiola because of tweets sent in 2013. He only joined on Monday. pic.twitter.com/UWh20iTTnp
— FourFourTweet (@FourFourTweet) December 29, 2015
Guardiola spoke on a Spanish radio station in an effort to clear his name, claiming that a friend hijacked his Twitter account and sent the messages and that he was unaware of the activity. He apologised for the offence caused and said:
'I know I made a mistake. I apologise to Catalonia and Barcelona. I understand the decision, I'd do the same. I want to make clear I didn't write those tweets. A friend took my phone and did it. It's a misunderstanding. The tweets are from 2013, a joke from a friend, I didn't even know the tweets existed. Barcelona have treated me very well. I understand their decision. Now I'm going home, we'll see what happens.'
😂😂😂 Barcelona B decided to end their contract with Sergi Guardiola after discovering this tweet. pic.twitter.com/Yz2ZmzNPGh
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cr7Prince4ever) December 29, 2015
'Once you're a professional, you support the team that plays best, and that's Barcelona. Joining them was a dream, now it's broken. I'm from Mallorca. I'm not anti-Catalan or anti-anything. I couldn't write those tweets.'
Cases such as this where a player was expelled from the club for posting offensive content on their social media accounts have happened in the past. Julio Rey's contract with Deportino La Coruna, was terminated after he posted a Twitter message in 2012 that read 'F*** Deport, f*** Riazor.'
