Sandro Rosell – is there an esc button?

I like to play a game when I watch F.C. Barcelona on TV, and it's one everyone can play at home, it's called 'Where's Rosell?'. It's sort of like 'Where's Wally?' but advanced-level stuff.

Sandro Rosell was elected as Barcelona president in July and became the most voted for president in Barcelona's history with more than 60% of the vote. Rosell stood against three continuistas: Agust Benedito, Jaume Ferrer and Marc Ingla, who all would have continued the then incumbent Joan Laporta's work.

Rosell has been very behind the scenes. The beginnings were good at club level. David Villa was signed from Valencia and Zlatan Ibrahimovic was off-loaded to Milan. A forever injured Adriano was bought from Sevilla and the squad looked better and in a lot better shape than the season before. However, belts have been well and truly tightened and the basketball team has had their budget halved and although Rosell at least promised during his election campaign to continue with Laporta's sporting model, current negotiations with Josep Guardiola seems to be grinding to a halt and Rosell's insistence that there's a bond between the two have been less than convincing. After the away day farce in Pamplona Guardiola urged Rosell to be far more public; something that could never be levelled at Joan Laporta.

The contract issue with Guardiola seems a reoccurring theme and the Dani Alves situation is perhaps the best example of a club that's dragging its feet under the current management. The announcement that Barcelona will carry a paid-sponsor on their shirts, alongside the current UNICEF logo, next year for the first time in the club's history has been met with disdain by those who voted for Rosell and this week a motion of no confidence has been mooted in the bloggersphere in Catalonia.

This is no knee-jerk reaction because despite the good at club level; on a sporting level, the institutional name of Barcelona has taken a battering comparable to that of Dresden during the war. Rosell's first act as president was to hold an extraordinary assembly so club fans could vote whether to effectively convict Joan Laporta over the club's loss of just under €80 million last year. All is well and good if you lead from the front in the name of justice and transparency, but the vote was close: 486 voted for the motion; 439 voted against and 113 abstained. President Sandro Rosell was one of those 113. The face of the club hid behind his directors.

Barcelona fans will have first heard of Sandro Rosell in 2003 when he was Joan Laporta's running mate. The two were like platonic nymphs, inseparable on and off camera. Rosell's dealings in Brazil with Nike meant that he was in prime position to sign Ronaldinho after the David Beckham deal officially fell-through, though in reality his own agreement with Real Madrid was in place long before Joan Laporta had reached his deal with Manchester United. Ronaldinho's instant success ensured Rosell's stock had never been higher.

The romance blossomed but then withered as in June 2005 Rosell, unsurprisingly, resigned from the board of directors. Unsurprising because a long, protracted and very public divorce had taken place between Rosell and Laporta. If you side with Laporta, and have seen the BBC documentary and Youtube footage, then Rosell wanted to isolate and control the board of directors and create chairman of the board one and two, with him and Laporta sitting abreast at the top of the table. If you read Rosell's book Bevingut al món real (Welcome to the real world), realeased in 2006, the fall out was about Laporta's lack of control over the club. Rosell described it as "absolute anarchy".

In 2006 confusion arose at the club as from when exactly Joan Laporta's mandate started and elections were to be held in September of that year. The only challenger for the presidency, that is publicly, was Oriol Giralt and despite answering 'never say never' when asked if he'd stand against Laporta, Rosell waited. Giralt never got the signatures required to stand but what was unclear at the time was clear cut two years later when Rosell openly supported Giralt in an action to bring a motion of no confidence against Laporta. The motion was successful but not passed, failing to meet the two-thirds majority needed by just six percent.

This takes us to the present year when on July 1st the frog became the king, and Rosell was quite literally kissed by Laporta. President Sandro Rosell was born but the waters were no less murky. Betraying 111 years of history and principle haven't been enough and using the club as his own vehicle of revenge against Laporta doesn't suffice. One thing Joan Laporta is generally congratulated for was banning the Boixos Nois from the Camp Nou, but Rosell disagrees. Rosell has re-opened the doors to the ultras, defending his decision by saying they’re ‘not all bad’. Nothing was added about the ones that are bad.

To boost popularity when elected Rosell stripped Johan Cruyff of his title as Honorary President of F.C. Barcelona, undoing an act that although seen as badly-timed by what remained of the Laporta administration, the award was undoubtedly deserved. The problem with Cruyff being honorary president is that he got on well with Laporta. He advised the club to hire Rijkaard and Laporta consulted him on footballing matters. Stripping Cruyff was yet another bash at his old mate, but also a swipe at a club legend that has created an influential enemy. Whether you agree with him or not (I don't), Cruyff's opinion matters more than any other member's and he's the current coach of the Catalan national team. Cruyff's complaint that Rosell snubbed him at a recent event has not gone down well. When asked about what he thought of the sponsorship dea Cruyff said the club had gone from “més que un club” (more than a club) to “un club más” (one more club).

Researching Rosell’s past brings up a certain amount of intrigue and one link which may cause alarm to Culés: Rosell’s links to Florentino Pérez. In July 2003 Rosell went to Pérez’s daughter’s wedding and this year a barrage of allegations have emanated from Brazil, throwing up many more questions than answers. In April, Alianto Marketing was accused of illegal activities and on the board of Alianto were both Sandro Rosell and Florentino Pérez’s wife. In June Rosell sold his company to Pérez, maybe nothing amiss there, but the fee the company was bought for was the same as it made in that financial year alone, according to El País.

Rosell’s start has been less than spectacular and some point to a Núñez mach II situation. Núñez was Barcelona’s own dictator from 1978 to 2000, and he even faced a players’ revolt in 1988 that saw the sacking of every player bar Andoni Zubizarreta. The next manager of the club, though, was one Johan Cruyff who went on to create the Dream Team and capture the club’s first European Cup in 1992. This time the way out seems a little trickier.

Raül Pope Fargüell, España