PRE-SEASON STARTS

In ten months time, when the football season is moving into the final stretch and the trophies are up for grabs, you can bet that if FC Barcelona are not in line for some silverware then complaints will be made.
The main focus of those complaints could well be the gruelling pre-season schedule that the top brass, and marketing men of course, have arranged to sell more more shirts and more tat to fans around the globe. Long gone are the days when a few games against locally-based opposition would suffice to warm up the players after a summer of sitting on the beach. Despite just having had over a dozen members of their squad involved in the World Cup Finals, on the back of a long season that saw them win both the league title and the Champions League, Barca have arranged are invovled in an incredible number of matches before the actual season kicks off.
The club’s first match is on July 28 when they travel to Denmark to meet AGF in Aarhus, a team that has just finished bottom of their table.
Then the fun really starts, with a long haul flight to Mexico where the Blaugrana will play Club Tigres in Monterrey on August 4. Then they are off to Los Angeles to meet Chivas Guadalajara on August 7, before jetting east to Houston to meet Club America. The final Stateside match, which is all part of a trip labelled On Tou USA 2006, takes place in Giants Stadium in New York when Frank Rijkaard’s men take on New York Red Bulls. Even that schedule may leave the players feeling like they need a break, but the Barca money machine is having none of it and the tour goes ahead. Upon their return to Catalunya, there is the prospect of a two-legged Spanish Super Cup encounter with local rivals Espanyol to prepare for. Let us not forget, however, that that tie will only take place on August 17 and 20, with the first leg being played on MontjuTc, if FIFA allow the players to play. You see, what is really needed only weeks after the end of the World Cup, according to the world football’s governing body, is a night of international friend-lies on August 16. As if that was not enough, Barca then have their own annual encounter in the Joan Gamper at Camp Nou and this time Bayern Munich have taken up the challenge laid down for August 22. The game against the Bundesliga giants will also see history made as Barca have decided to carry a name on their shirts for the first time in the club’s history, unless of course you include that little gold tick that they have been paid millions to have embroidered by the world’s largest sportswear manufacturer.
Controversy has been averted though, as the logo will be that of UNICEF, after the Blaugrana linked up with the UN this year. Three days later there is the little matter of the European Super Cup in Monaco on August 25, when Barcelona take on UEFA Cup winners Sevilla. It could be argued, after all that, that tours and extra pre-season games may well have little bearing on the outcome of a team’s season.
Espanyol, won the Copa del Rey, but they also struggled against relegation last season and they rarely embark on anything so ambitious to prepare their squad. This summer, Los Periquitos begin their programme with a game against Spanish Third Division outfit CF Peralada on July 21.
A week later, Ernesto Valverde (pictured below) takes his side south for a match against Villarreal, a game that was set up as part of the transfer that saw Armando Sa move between the clubs.
On August 3, the Blanc i Blau were planning to play Greek First
Division side FC Larissa, but that encounter has now been thrown into doubt.
FIFA have decided to ban Greece from having any football contact with the outside world because they feel that there is too much government interference in the running of the game over there. No doubt another friendly if that match is cancelled, while arrangeaments for a game against Terrassa, to mark the Segunda B side’s centenary are in full swing.
The Estadi Olimpic-based side are also making final preparations to play two or three friend-lies in England.