FC Barcelona, the Spanish football club, has been accused of not paying its Valorant coach.
FC Barcelona jumped into Valorant esports at the start of the 2024 season under the name Barça eSports. The team competes in the Valorant Challengers League in Spain, Spain Rising, and has a 6-4 record at the time of writing.
The football club announced a Barça Games initiative in November in collaboration with Mas Ros Media and FireSPORTS as a new platform to offer fans games, streaming content, and including TV series, documentaries, and movies.
The sports company also has a League of Legends team that competes in SuperLiga in Spain. The team also has players that have competed in PES efootball for years.
Barcelona has struggled as a sports club in recent years as its debt from player acquisitions, and, after failing to win at the highest level of the game, these costs have allegedly come to a head. This financial burden might have trickled down into its esports section, as its Valorant coach has accused the company of failing to pay out his salary.
FC Barcelona accused of not paying their Valorant squad
Barça eSports’ Valorant coach Lucas ‘LRojo’ Rojo accused the organization of not paying him over an extensive period.
LRojo is an esports veteran, having coached in Fortnite and League of Legends in the past.
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“I have been in hell for about four months, each day it expands more and more and the situation continues to worsen and today, I have reached the limit. In theory, today was the last payment window of the month, they usually make transfers on the 15th and the last week of the month, like all large companies. As of February 29, I still have not received a single € from FC Barcelona, they owe me three months of work and I am still waiting for the money,” he claimed.
Esta es mi situación con el FC Barcelona.Os resumo un poco para que entendáis la situación en la que estoy dentro del equipo. Llevo unos 4 meses de infierno que cada día se van expandiendo más y más y la situación se sigue agravando y hoy, he llegado al límite.En teoría hoy…
— Lucas Rojo (@LucasRojo) February 29, 2024
The coach further stated that he has not heard from the club in four months and that he has survived largely by dipping into his savings.
“Nobody has asked me in these four months how we are doing, how training is going, how the team is progressing, how we are training, what we are training, nothing. An absolute void in which I feel alone, without support from the club, having to endure a situation that is completely unfair and that I cannot solve since it does not depend on me,” he said.
The Barça eSports social media account has posted about the Valorant team’s matches and showcased highlight clips since its initial announcement in January.
The players on the team have not posted about the allegations or accused Barcelona of not paying their salaries.
The organization has not responded to the allegations at the time of writing. The Valorant team is currently in the middle of its Challengers regular season and still has four more matches to play.