Former Barcelona manager Quique Setien threatened to take legal action against the club over the abrupt termination of his contract.
The 61-year-old and his three assistants were shown the exit doors after their 8-2 Champions League quarterfinal defeat to Bayern Munich last season.
Setien was appointed as a replacement for Ernesto Valverde after earlier this year but did not last beyond the 2019-20 season.
But the Bayern’s humiliation forced the Catalans chiefs to terminate his contract and bring in former player Ronald Koeman.
However, the former Real Betis handler is now ready to take the Blaugrana to court following their silence as regards his severance package which was included in the deal he signed in January.
Daily Mail reports that Barca’s failure to fulfill their end of the bargain could hinder new boss Koeman from taking charge of the team on an official game until that has been settled.
“Quique Setien, Eder Sarabia, Jon Pascua and Fran Soto – we communicate that, due to the latest information published, we want to make the following clarification,” the statement, published on Setien’s social media, began.
“After a month of absolute silence by the FC Barcelona board of directors, and after various requests by us, it is not until yesterday when we finally received the first official communications, by burofax.
“These communications reveal the clear intention of the directors not to comply with their employment contracts dated 01/14/2020.
“In my case, Quique Setién, it is public and well known that on August 17, both the Club and the President announced my dismissal with immediate effect.
“However, it was not until yesterday, September 16 (one month later), when they sent me, for the first time, the written communication of said dismissal (without any settlement).
“Regarding the rest of the coaching staff, they informed us, also yesterday, to our surprise, of a “future relocation” to the Club.
“For all that has been said, we have been forced to put the conflict resolution in the hands of our lawyers, taking into account that we must bring the corresponding legal actions. And this, in order to preserve our rights and what was agreed in its day with FC Barcelona.”
Setien failed to win silverware for Barcelona in the 2019-20 season after losing the league title to Real Madrid despite gapping them by two points before coronavirus forced all activities to go on suspension in March.
