Rijkaard plays his future tomorrow

Both main Catalan sports papers, Sport and El Mundo Deportivo, claim today that a new loss in the first game of the Chamions League quarter final against Schalke 04 tomorrow night, could mean the end of Frank Rijkaard (45) as Barcelona manager. The papers report that different members of the Barcelona board already didn't want to continue with Rijkaard anymore after the Copa elimination because they assume the manager doesn't have the strong hand needed to change the situation, but Barcelona president Joan Laporta wants to hold on to Rijkaard at least until the end of the season. A new defeat could nevertheless make the pressure on Laporta to act too big to resist.

Both papers point out Barcelona B manager Josep Guardiola (37) as the possible emergency successor (read more here).

Yesterday, Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain said in an interview with Catalan television channel TV3 that "the club is getting plenty of arguments to take decisions", but that they only plan to act at the end of the current season.

On the position of manager Frank Rijkaard, Begiristain said: "We are going through difficult times. Personally, I would like him to continue, but of course we have to wait and see how the season ends and how the relations between the manager and the squad are at that moment." The Barcelona sports director denied the rumours that Rijkaard would have offered to resign after the Betis game on Saturday: "That is just not true."