By Tim Stannard

1) Barca president backs Pique’s Madrid string-pulling stance

Faced with passing on the question and letting the matter die down, or making sure he was front and center of some angry front pages in Madrid on Tuesday, the Barcelona president chose the latter. And more power to Josep Maria Bartomeu for keeping up the entertainment levels in an ever-infantile scrap between Real Madrid and Barca that will run and run into the next millennium. Hopefully.

Bartomeu was at the presentation of a soon-to-be-build mini-stadium for the club’s youth teams and backed Gerard Pique’s assertions from last week that the Real Madrid VIP area was stuffed with powers-that-be, string-pulling, shady types, comments that were then reinforced by Barcelona’s VP, Jordi Cardoner. “The club already made its position clear through Cardoner and is in agreement with Pique," announced the Barcelona bigwig.

Remember to tune into the XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM PT every weekday for a daily dose of Clasico for all the news you-need-to-know, and didn’t-know-you-needed-to-know-but-know-now.

2) Bauza faces D-Day as future hangs in balance with Argentina

If rumors out of Argentina are true, then Edgardo Bauza’s day of doom is set to be on Monday with the possible sacking of the Argentina coach who has taken his team from under-performing to atrocious in his tenure in charge.

Bauza is set for a meeting with the new Argentinean federation but the national team coach believes that it is just business as usual – “a normal day of work.” But if they were to end his stint as national team coach? “Then I will offer them my hand and head home.”

SB is now praying to all the gods-that-be that Diego Maradona is now given another go at the helm of Argentina. How could anything possibly get any worse?

3) Match-fixing suspicions after Barca put 12 past opposition  

Back to Barcelona for the moment and a curious story from Spain’s lower leagues that involves the team’s youth outfit.

A rather hefty 12-0 win for the ‘B’ team over Eldense in the fourth-tier of Spanish football has caused quite the kerfuffle with the club immediately ceasing all sporting activity on a provisional basis after the outrageous affair. Unfortunately, there are suggestions that the match was thrown by the losers, something that is now about to be investigated. “I felt completely helpless on the pitch and I am sorry for the result,” was the apology from defender, Mikey Fernández.

4) Inter look for late European charge against Sampdoria

About 99.9 % of the footballing weekend is over, before the leagues in England, Spain and Germany get at it again on Tuesday. But there are a couple of stragglers to be picked up on Monday. And one of them is quite the catch on beIN SPORTS with the ever entertaining Inter hosting Sampdoria live on beIN SPORTS from 2:40PM ET / 11:40AM PT.

Inter are currently lying outside of the European places and a victory against Sampdoria would squeeze the Milan side into fifth, above Atalanta. Over on beIN CONNECT, La Liga wraps up with a clash between Celta Vigo and Las Palmas, and SB suspects that there are goals in them there games.

5) Federer to take time out after Miami triumph

TENNIS TIME! The sport continues its 2008 throwback year with a final at the Miami Open on Sunday between the Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer. Once again, it was the latter who prevailed beating the Spaniard in two sets for three major tournament wins in 2017. But the South Florida tennis-fest is set to be the last time Federer takes to a court until the French Open at the end of May, which is also set to be Federer’s only clay court appearance as the 35-year-old perhaps keeps a beady eye on Wimbledon.

beIN SPORTS is the home of WTA tennis and is chuffed to bring top class coverage to the screens of North America from Wednesday with daily coverage beginning from 8PM ET / 5PM PT.

WHAT IS SPORTS BURST?

The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. SB is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.