Barcelona promote Ramon Planes to replace Eric Abidal

Barcelona have named Ramon Planes as their new sporting director following the dismissal of Eric Abidal.

Abidal was let go on Tuesday, a day after informing head coach Quique Setien that he would not keep his job following the 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals on Friday.

Planes was appointed as Abidal’s assistant in June 2018 after a year as technical secretary at Getafe and will now take on the senior role at Camp Nou.

The 52-year-old spent five years at Espanyol from June 2007, while he has also worked with Tottenham during the 2014-15 season.

Planes is set to have his work cut out for him with a report by Sport suggesting the majority of the Barca first-team squad were put up for sale prior to Ronald Koeman’s appointment as Setien’s successor.

LATEST NEWS – Ramon Planes, new technical director for Barça pic.twitter.com/JQq6Z9r7xb

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) August 19, 2020

Lionel Messi is not thought to be among the vast list of players to have been made available for a transfer but it has been claimed he wants to leave.

Abidal came under fire for his handling of Ernesto Valverde’s departure in January, when Barca were top of LaLiga.

The Catalan giants ended up surrendering a two-point advantage ahead of the coronavirus-enforced suspension and finished five points adrift of Real Madrid.