Barcelona have sacked a director for questioning Lionel Messi's 'brilliance'.

Pere Gratacos, a former Barcelona B player, said following Friday's Copa del Rey draw that it was Barcelona's fellow big names who made Messi the player he is.

"Messi would not be as good without Iniesta, Neymar and co," Gratacos said, according to Spanish website Sport.

"He's the best, this is true."

At a time when Barcelona are looking to keep Messi at the club on an extended contract, the comments apparently did not go down well.

And by the end of the day he had lost his job as the club's head of sporting relations to the Spanish federation (RFEF).

Barcelona said Gratacos would still have an undefined position with the club academy.

The Catalan club said in a statement: "FC Barcelona have dismissed Pere Gratacos as head of institutional sporting relations with the Royal Spanish Football Federation for having publicly expressed a personal opinion that does not match that of the club after the draw for the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey held today in Madrid.

"The decision has been taken by Albert Soler, director of professional sports, who will assume these functions directly from now on."

Barcelona's statement added that Gratacos would retain a link to the club through tasks with the Masia 360 project.