Barca meal could spell trouble for Messi

Both La Liga and the Catalan regional health authorities have opened an investigation into a meal organized for the Barcelona first team squad by Leo Messi at his house on Monday, reported Xinhua.

The meal was supposedly for the players to prepare for their last four games of the season in which they are battling out for their La Liga title against Atletico Madrid (who they play on Saturday), Real Madrid and Sevilla, but it could have breached health protocols and leave Messi and those attending open to a fine.

Although the Barcelona players and coaching staff are in what is known as a 'work bubble' and club sources consider the meal to have been work related, the fact that the players' partners also attended the meal means that bubble was not respected.

Health protocols in place for the Catalan region in the north-east of Spain limit the number of people present at social gatherings to just six and even though the meal was outside in the open air in the garden of Messi's house, with diners divided up into tables of six, over 30 people were present.

Meritxell Budo, the Council for the Presidency at the Catalan regional authority commented that "we know what happened and we have seen the images (of the get-together). The Public Health Agency is responsible for this, they have also seen the images and they will make a technical evaluation in the coming days and tell us how to proceed."

Meanwhile, Pepe Aragones, the acting regional president, said, "we will have to see if we have to take further action. There is an established process and an established procedure."

"I want to make an appeal to everyone, not just to comply with the measures, but for people in positions of public responsibility to do so in an even more intense way, because they are setting an example," he added.