Barcelona exposed to a fine after ‘jersey incident’ vs Napoli

Barcelona are all set to face a monetary fine following a bizarre incident involving Ferran Torres and his crestless shirt.

Torres, who scored the equalizing goal against Napoli in the first leg of the Europa League knockout play-offs, changed his jersey at half-time while not realizing that the top he was wearing did not have the club logo and Nike’s swoosh.

To everyone’s surprise, the shirt had passed all quality control checks before ending up in the Barcelona dressing room. Even the official kitmen had failed to identify the error. As it turns out, the January signing went onto the field in the second half wearing a shirt that only had a Rakuten branding.

Now, Spanish media outlet Cadena SER writes that the entire incident has left Barcelona ‘exposed to an economic fine’. Quoting Eduardo Iturralde González of Carrusel Deportivo, the outlet confirms that all shirts ‘have to be the official ones with all their logos’ and that they are ‘measured and sent to UEFA for supervision’.

“Once UEFA reviews and accepts all the logos, you will no longer be able to change them in shape or size,” Cadenaser quoted González as saying.

Nevertheless, it was a night to forget for the former Manchester City forward, who appeared to be in tears following the full-time whistle. Despite scoring the all-important equalizer, the 21-year-old squandered nearly two to three clear goal scoring chances.

Regardless of the performance, though, manager Xavi uplifted his spirits by saying that he has full trust in him.

“It happened to Luis Suarez, who seemed to have no goals,” Xavi said after the game.

“The Barça shirt weighs a few kilos more. But I am delighted to have him in the team and he will give me a lot of joy.”