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The Spanish Government will not respect the territorial funding scheme, approved by the Spanish Parliament and in a referendum, as it will only invest 11% of its regional spending in Catalonia. According to the current legislation, in order to compensate for an historical lack of infrastructural investment in Catalonia recognised by the Spanish Parliament and the Constitutional Court, the Spanish Government must invest at least the equivalent of Catalonia’s economic weight within Spain, which represents 18.7% in 2012. Furthermore it does not include €1 billion pending from 2008 and 2009, to which Catalonia is legally entitled.

Barça have beaten Athletic Bilbao in an intense, lively game in which both sides played some exquisite football. But the home side enjoyed most of the possession and also the chances, and eventually won through thanks to goals from Iniesta and Messi (penalty).

FC Barcelona Manager, Pep Guardiola, foresees an intense Spanish League match against Athletic Bilbao, a team that he qualified as the “Sensation of Europe”. Guardiola recognises that all teams need days of recovery between matches, but he believes that Bielsa’s squad will give their all on Saturday at the Camp Nou, despite having played on Thursday.

The General Strike on March 29th ended without significant changes in the Spanish Government’s Labour Reform, but with a clear acknowledgement that there is growing social anger. The strike was unevenly supported in Catalonia. Unions talked about sector strike participation ranging between 97% and 57% and the Catalan Government about strike participations ranging between 24% and 10%. Minimum services worked as planned, without any significant incidents. Demonstrations took place in the main Catalan cities, with the largest in Barcelona. Isolated violent incidents were the only negative parts of what was a relatively calm day.

The Spanish Minister for the Economy, Luís de Guindos, announced in Barcelona the future creation of the so-called ‘hispanobonds’, common bonds issued by the Autonomous Communities and backed by the Spanish Treasury. The objective is to reduce high interests rates, and thus the financial costs that the Autonomous Communities have to pay when they turn towards financial markets to get liquidity. The Catalan Finance Minister proposed the original idea several few weeks ago.

The Argentine international just keeps on breaking all the record. This time he has beaten FC Barcelona record of 34 Spanish League goals in a season held by Brazilian striker Ronaldo since the 1996/97 season. Messi’s current tally stands at 35. He also equaled Philip Cocu’s record of 205 league appearances for Barça.

Goals from Messi and Piqué either side of half time gave Barça a vital win against Mallorca, with Thiago’s sending off the only negative as Guardiola’s men continue to hunt down the Spanish League leaders, Real Madrid.

FC Barcelona Manager, Pep Guardiola, is still playing things cautiously despite the reduced distance between Barça and Real Madrid, the current Spanish League leaders. “I still think there are a lot of points to win back”, he said. He also highlighted how 15 of the 19 players picked to go to Mallorca are products of the club itself, coming from Barça’s La Masia football school.

Real Madrid dropped two more points with their second successive 1-1 draw against Villarreal in their last Spanish League game. After Barça’s win against Granada, the Catalans have reduce the gap from 10 to 6 points in only four days. The chase for the Spanish League’s leadership is livelier than ever.

With his three goals against Granada, Leo Messi surpasses César’s record and became the all-time top goalscorer in the history of FC Barcelona in official matches with 234 goals.

Leo Messi’s hat-trick against Granada has made him the highest goalscorer in FC Barcelona history, while goals from Xavi and Tello also helped to put Barça within five points of the Spanish League leader, Real Madrid.

Two superb first half goals from Xavi and Messi gave Barça the win in Seville, with an excellent performance – particularly in the first half-that’ll be a real morale boost for FC Barcelona.

The Barça manager reckons the real tests are only about to begin, in all of the Champions League, Spanish League and Cup. From now on, he warns, “there is no turning the page after any setbacks.” He also feels that it will be of benefit to everybody that the return leg of the Champions League quarter final against AC Milan will be at the Camp Nou. Besides, Guardiola said on Abidal that right now nothing is more important than “finding a solution to the illness he’s suffering so that he can carry on with his life”.

The Catalan Government had already approved a 3% reduction of public salaries during the current year, which will now be increased to 5%. However, the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, explained that the measure would be cancelled if the Spanish Government approved a similar reduction, in order not to harm public employees with two salary reductions. The People’s Party supports Mas but the Left-Wing opposition parties have criticised the measure and have said that there are other ways to reduce the deficit. Mas demanded that the Spanish Government include the funds it legally owes Catalonia in its budget for 2012 which would avoid further cutbacks.

Leo Messi was again on target against Racing de Santander, scoring both goals as Barça extended its winning run to six games with a 0-2 win. However, Real Madrid did also win against Betis and is still 10 points ahead, on top of the Spanish League.