Controversy continues surrounding the possible trip of FC Barcelona to Japan for the start of its 2025/26 preseason tour. After everything seemed settled, following the intervention of Rakuten —former club sponsor and owner of Vissel Kobe— who unlocked the situation by showing willingness to assume the remaining amount of the disbursement that the Yasuda Group should have made to successfully complete this friendly tour, uncertainty returns to the scene.
However, the situation still seems to have a loose end to resolve. And, as reported in Jijantes, although it was foreseen that the trip could even be finalized this Thursday afternoon, now everything is up in the air again due to logistical problems related to the airline.
In turn, the aforementioned source maintains that complications with the flight are arising due to the delay, and so far everything seems to indicate that today they will not be traveling to the Land of the Rising Sun. From this, it remains for the azulgrana team to state whether or not there will finally be a trip to Japan and, based on that, explain what the new planning will be for this accident-prone start to the Asian tour.
FC Barcelona demands economic guarantees before flying to Asia
Going a step further, another source such as the sports newspaper SPORT attributes the delay in the trip to another reason: from there they point out that Barcelona, due to displeasure with the situation and all this controversy generated by the breach of the initial commitment, would be demanding maximum guarantees before the departure of the culé expedition from the Ciudad Condal.
This, due to distrust of the possibility of finding themselves with a non-payment once landed in Japan. Therefore, the Catalan team would have demanded the payment of the outstanding amount —which Rakuten had committed to paying— before boarding the plane.
Possible clash between Rakuten and Barça keeps the Asian tour in suspense
However, Rakuten apparently was not willing to pay the amount until they were certain that Barcelona was on the plane and flying to Japan. So, for one reason or another, everything surrounding the possible trip of the blaugrana team to Japanese lands remains with a certain degree of uncertainty.
This situation, apparently, has also generated discomfort in the squad, given the surreal nature of the scenario that keeps them in a constant state of alert, in case they have to quickly pack their bags and undertake the trip. Will the trip finally take place? It's not clear, but the soap opera still has a lot to offer.