Lionel Messi: Barcelona punish club official over comments about Argentina forward

Barcelona have rebuffed a club official for communicating an "individual feeling" about forward Lionel Messi "that does not coordinate that of the club".

Pere Gratacos lost his fundamental post at the club in the wake of saying "it was not just Messi" who got them through a Copa del Rey tie with Athletic Bilbao.

Barca achieved the quarter-finals with a 4-3 total win on account of a 78th-minute Messi free-kick on Wednesday.

Gratacos stated: "Messi wouldn't be as great without Andres Iniesta or Neymar."

He included: "Clearly Leo is the most essential player of the group however it was Luis Suarez and Gerard Pique also - the entire group - who got us through."

In an announcement on Friday, Barca said Gratacos would be supplanted as head of donning relations with the Spanish Football Federation, however would hold a part inside the club's childhood institute.

He made the remarks after Barca were attracted to play Real Sociedad in the last eight of the Spanish Cup.

Messi, 29, is yet to concur another agreement with Barcelona, with his arrangement set to terminate in 2018.

The five-time Ballon d'Or champ has been with the Spanish club since he was 13. Talking in November, club president Josep Bartomeu said he was "persuaded" Messi would end his vocation at Barca.