Q. Xavi recently criticized Barcelona, saying not enough young players are coming through and getting to the first team, like he and Andres Iniesta and Messi and all the rest. Do you agree with that?

A. No, no. The problem is Xavi, and Iniesta, and Leo Messi, and those players. It is very difficult to be a player, and when you have in front of you Leo Messi, or you have Neymar, or Xavi, Iniesta, [Sergio] Busquets or [Gerard] Piqué. It is very difficult to be there.

Xavi was in the first team for 15 years. Those 15 years mean that 15 boys that played in his position had to leave the club. Iniesta, now, I think it is 16 or 17 years. It is very difficult. Or Leo Messi? Who is going to be the new Messi? Well, probably, other players will be Messi, but they have to leave our club because it is impossible. Xavi said “go slowly,” but the problem is Xavi! He created the problem. And Iniesta and Piqué. They created the problem.

Q. You are under investigation by the Spanish tax authorities, and there is the Neymar case …

A. Neymar 2. We call it Neymar 2. Neymar 1 we already solved, now we are going to Neymar 2.

Neymar 2 isn’t a tax problem, right? Neymar 2 is a problem of third-party ownership that is asking for more money, but they should ask Santos [Neymar’s former club in Brazil], not to us.

Q. Looking at it from here, you see Barcelona stars having tax problems, the head of the Spanish federation arrested, and it kind of looks like within Spanish soccer there are all these financial problems.

A. No, no, it isn’t affecting us, but we are worried, of course. Because when you see our players are under tax investigations, when you see that your players didn’t pay correctly their taxes — not [just] Barça players — Madrid, Atlético Madrid, most of the Spanish football players, they have to pay extra payments for taxes. Well, something is wrong. Because if it is one case you say, “O.K., one is wrong.”