Barcelona admitted to approaching Luis Suárez about a move from Liverpool before the World Cup began.

Suárez initially told Barcelona that he was happy to remain with Liverpool, but they had the inside track with his wife's family already living in the city.

“When we approached Suárez, it was before the World Cup. We told him that he had the right age. He had the experience,” Josep Bartomeu said. “Playing at Liverpool gave him incredible performances and it was the right time for him to come to our club, to Barcelona.

“We knew from of lot of years ago that Luis Suárez likes our club, likes our city. And we have the advantage – his agent is Pep Guardiola’s brother. He’s from Barça in his heart, also, so everything was perfect and created the perfect atmosphere that Luis Suárez accepted.”

Bartomeu admitted Barcelona was not put off by his bite of Giorgio Chiellini or his suspension.

“We didn’t rethink this decision and we told Luis after the bite,” he said. “He knows he did wrong. He apologised. That’s very important for us. That means he knows that he did not do things properly and of course, coming to our city, coming to our club, there’s going to be a way of managing Luis Suárez.”