The Catalan club, which has been actively involved in electronic sports for two years, refuses to enter more fully for a matter of values.
The president of FC Barcelona, Josep María Bartomeu, has stated that the club does not engage with more dedication to the world of eSports video games because they do not match their values. According to the manager, "80%" of the games are "violent."
Despite two years of experience of the Blaugrana team, with associations with Japan's Konami in Pro Evolution Soccer and successes of esports such as Rocket League, Bartomeu looks badly at the link between the club trained by Quique Setién in the electronic leisure sector .
"For our values we do not want to participate in violent games, which are 80%"
It was in a meeting with the press held on February 12 when Carles Escolán, a journalist for Radio Marca, has asked the current president (who will not be able to appear again in the elections to be held in 2021) about his position around the eSports. The response has been brief, but blunt: "we have teams in Asia that compete with the colors of Barça, but we don't get too full because of our values we don't want to participate in violent games, which are 80%," he said, although does not declare which titles qualify for that qualifier.
@Jmbartomeu has spoken about #eSports: "we have teams in Asia that compete with the colors of Barça but we don't get too full because of our values we don't want to participate in violent games, which are 80%." #LeagueOfLegends #counterstrike
– Carles Escolán (@CarlesEscolan) February 12, 2020
This excludes, therefore, that as long as Bartomeu continues as president of FC Barcelona the team will not make the leap to other renowned video games in the electronic sports circuit, such as FIFA, Fortnite: Battle Royale or Call of Duty, among others. Other LaLiga clubs do have their own club; Not to mention the players themselves, such as Antoine Griezmann, who saw the Blaugrana squad, with their recent independent participation.
Despite the president's words, FC Barcelona has been inclined to maintain a close relationship with eSports during his term of office on more than one occasion. The most recent, last April, when the official website opened with the following headline: "FC Barcelona reinforces its commitment to eSports with a Rocket League team" and phrases such as: "Barça, which already it has a PES team, it will also compete in the most important events of the videogame ”.
The International Olympic Committee, in the line of Bartomeu
The International Olympic Committee, back in 2018, closed the doors of the Olympic Games to the video game by ensuring that electronic sports promote violence. Thomas Bach, the president of the IOC, said: "We cannot have a game in the Olympic program that promotes violence or discrimination." "They (the games), from our point of view, are contradictory to Olympic values and therefore cannot be accepted." The initial efforts, in August 2017, went through a consideration so that the eSports were in the 2024 Olympic Games to be held in Paris, France.
