Johan Cruyff cricitizes Barcelona board for control over player selection

Barcelona's Champions League exit has inevitably led to claims of a crisis at the Camp Nou, and Johan Cruyff is the latest to take a swipe at the Catalan giants.

Cruyff, who played for Barcelona between 1973 and 1978 before taking over as manager from 1988 to 1996, claims that the club's board has damaged the team by interfering with the player selection of previous coaches. Specifically, Cruyff has accused certain board members of selling players without the coach's consent. 

"I said a long time ago, whoever decides your team is the coach and for four years it's not been the coach," Cruyff told Sport. "What is happening is logical. The first thing done by this directive was to sell a player (Pep) Guardiola wanted. And from then on, who's the boss? The coach?

"(Sporting director) Andoni Zubizarreta sold (Dymtro) Chygrynskiy against the will of the coach. The first problems started with Guardiola."

But the issue isn't one of the past, as Cruyff believes the board is now compromising the player selection of current manager Gerardo Martino.

"Martino is doing what he can but it's hard when you have to be in charge but not be in charge," Cruyff said. "It's not one detail, it's many details. It's the coach who makes players better so the coach has to decide things.

"They've had four years and it's getting worse."