by Tim Stannard
Barcelona's bosses find more ways to annoy Lionel Messi by letting best friend move to title rival
Tuesday's episode of Below Deck: Barcelona - a rip-roaring docudrama based around the whacky lives of Barcelona's players and bosses - saw star striker, Luis Suarez, having a dramatic move to rivals Atletico Madrid blocked by the ship's captain, Josep Bartomeu. It was quite the cliff-hanger ending.
In a curious side plot, Suarez was also being investigated for cheating on an Italian language exam. But that's a whole other thing.
However, in quite the twist, just 24-hours later, there has been a heck of a U-turn and Luis Suarez will be allowed free passage to Atletico Madrid for no transfer fee, giving a direct title rival a forward with the fire power to deliver a league title and a grievance against Barcelona big enough to fuel this aim.
That's not to mention the message it sends to an already irked Lionel Messi who is staying at the club under duress and now sees his best friend and colleague playing for a rival team.
The double-back took place because Luis Suarez was reportedly going to go public on the background of Barcelona's ludicrously bad 2020 - something that spooked Bartomeu enough to release Suarez for his Barcelona binds.
💪 #WednesdayMotivation
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) September 23, 2020
🔵🔴 #ForçaBarça pic.twitter.com/SaK0QOEHZD
However, that does now see reports that some of Bartomeu's beleaguered board might well resign in protest of what appears to be a footballing own goal for Barca with Suarez set to pen a two-year deal with the Rojiblancos.
All that will come in Thursday's edition of the show, as Barcelona gears up for the start of what could be quite the campaign against Villarreal at 3PM on Sunday.
The Sports Burst live show will be getting the latest from the Suarez move and everything else from LaLiga. Head to our beIN SPORTS USA Facebook page or beIN XTRA channel at 12PM ET.
Semedo joins Portuguese enclave of Wolves as Atletico eye Torreira
Sports Burst is not quite done with Barcelona, as there has been another departure from the ship on Wednesday. Nelson Semedo has become the 118th Portuguese player to join EPL side Wolves.
The fullback heads to the English midlands in a $47 million deal after a three-year spell at the Camp Nou.
Switching to Atletico Madrid now, whose LaLiga campaign begins against Granada on Sunday, and the Suarez deal is likely to be tied up over the next couple of days, but there is more late business to be done in Wanda-land.
Fullback, Santiago Arias, is expected to be moved out to Bayern Leverkusen but Arsenal's pocket rocket, Lucas Torreira, might be joining on loan after being left out of Mikel Arteta's first two Premier League outings.
Flamengo bounce back with Barcelona win
A South America heavy day on beIN SPORTS continues with another night of Copa Liberatores action on Wednesday. The tournament is currently on day two of some Match Day 4 action.
Tuesday saw Flamengo defeat Barcelona....of Ecuador...to help ease the pain of a historically bad 5-0 defeat to Independiente del Valle last week. Meanwhile, River Plate unloaded a 6-0 win at Deportivo Binacional.
Wednesday's action is headlined by the all-Brazilian fight-fest that could be Internacional against Gremio at 8:30PM ET on beIN SPORTS Spanish.
