Virginie Phulpin 12:10 p.m., January 21, 2022

For six months, FC Barcelona and the French world champion Ousmane Dembélé have started negotiations around a possible contract extension.

In the absence of an agreement between the parties, the club is now asking the player to leave before the end of the transfer window, on January 31.

A situation analyzed on Friday on Europe 1 by the sports columnist Virginie Phulpin.

EDITORIAL

Stormy divorces also exist in football.

This is what is happening at the moment between FC Barcelona and the French world champion Ousmane Dembélé.

There are wrongs on both sides, but the Catalan club is losing control a bit in this story.

Sports columnist Virginie Phulpin gives us her analysis.

Football not exempt from labor law

"We have passed the age of binary stories of good guys and bad guys. And yet, FC Barcelona wraps itself in its certainties of a big club to give itself the good role and accuse Ousmane Dembélé of all the evils. It's a bit lazy as a scenario for the last episode of a soap opera that has been going on for 6 months. Yes, it's been 6 months since the club and the player's entourage began negotiations for a possible contract extension. A contract that expires in month of June And as the discussions did not succeed, Barça got angry all red on Thursday.

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Since that's how it is, finished.

Ousmane Dembélé must leave, he must go now, as soon as possible, before the end of the winter transfer window on January 31.

Otherwise, anyway, he won't play anymore.

Tac!

We should not always ask for more with each proposal from the club.

Yes, but nothing forces Ousmane Dembélé to leave now.

There is something called labor law.

And football is not a world apart.

You, me, if we have a six-month CDD, our employer cannot tell us to stop after 3 months without there being any fault.

However, the Spanish players' union recalled on Thursday that the failure to reach an agreement on a contract extension was in no way a breach of work.

FC Barcelona, ​​first motivated by the financial question

That FC Barcelona does not try to make us take bladders for lanterns by talking to us about love for the jersey and respect for the institution. If Ousmane Dembélé waits until June to leave Barça, he will leave free. That is to say that FC Barcelona will not receive anything from the club that hires the player. I understand that the Catalans want to avoid that at all costs, especially with their empty coffers. But they have done just about anything for several years in terms of recruitment and financial management. And Ousmane Dembélé does not have to pay for all that.

So be careful, there are things to blame the player for.

He recognizes it himself.

A lifestyle not necessarily very compatible with high-level sport, delays in training, and especially since he arrived at Barça in September 2017, he has played 129 games out of the 248 played by his team.

Half roughly.

For a transfer of 135 million euros at the time, it's fair, we agree.

Not really the time for his agent to show the muscles and be too greedy in the negotiations.

But there are shared faults in this case, not a bad player against a nice club.