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Image via WikipediaEnvied from without would be one thing, easily remedied by circling the wagons using it as a motivational tool, but what has happened to FC Barcelona over the last few months is far more sinister, and knowing a bit about the history of FC Barcelona, fully in keeping with the DNA of such a club. The dirty secret about Barça is that quite often the greatest enemy to the blaugrana cause isn't Real Madrid or the centrist government, but within their own midst. Here you have a pair of businessmen, partners at one time, who had a very public falling out: Joan Laporta and his second Sandro Rosell. Their private duel has become not only a weight around each of their own legacies but a weight that threatens to drag the club down with them.
Let me explain. Joan Laporta´s second term as Barcelona President was coming to an end. He was very unpopular in that last term, surviving a vote on no-confidence after two unsuccessful seasons, only to luck into the appointment of his term, ditching calls to sign José Mourinho as Frank Rijkaard´s successor and handing the reigns over to club-legend Pep Guardiola. He had wriggled away from his critics but it would not last. He knew how popular Sandro Rosell had become with those same socis or members that had threatened his Presidency. He also realized, as José Ramon de la Morena cataloged this week on his program El Larguero on Cadena Ser, that ¨If Rosell won the election he´d have access to the books and he´d open them for the socios.¨ With a burgeoning career in regional Catalán politics at stake, he would do anything to stop that from happening.
He knew that the club had made serious financial mistakes and that his bitter rival Rosell would call his predecessor out publicly on them. Laporta of course defends his terms, why not, if your stewardship has been one of the most successful in Barcelona´s history. Countless trophies, new membership: making it of the most highly supported clubs in the world, and most importantly, Laporta´s reign saw a revenue growth from the €297.3 million reported in the 2006-07 season to €415.4 million in 2009-10. The problem being here is that operating expenses also grew out proportion: from €283.6 million in 2006-07 to €486.9 million in 2009-10 leaving the yearly losses at €71.5 million and not the 11 million euro profit that Laporta´s accountants had written in the books.
It was nothing new. From the beginning there were members who did not like Laporta´s big spending ways. It was his willingness to secure David Beckham´s signature for the blaugrana that catapulted him past safer candidates and secured his Presidency at least initially. Beckham never came, but Ronaldinho did, as did the likes of Rafa Marquez, Samuel Etoó, Deco, Thierry Henry, and Dani Alvez. For all the talk about La Masia being the base from which Barcelona began its winning tradition under Laporta with the promotions of Lionel Messi, Gio Dos Santos, Busquets, Bojan and Pedrito, it was one of the most lavish periods of buying players: €455.05 million in Laporta´s term alone. In that time they were only able to recoup €127.59 million of that. People talk of the Zlatan Ibrahimovic debacle, losing close to €40 million on him alone, but losing another €30 million in the collective transfers of Deco, Ronaldinho and Etoó was almost as bad. Granted, transfers are a crapshoot, so betting on the likelihood of successful transfers is an idiot´s game, but how do you explain the €8.0 million paid to quiet Zlatan´s ex-Pizza-man agent? Add the lavish lifestyle, the drunken parties filled with cava, the private jets and the dodgy investments. It was all part of a whole; a reminder that this global economic crisis came from a period of unchecked spending and FC Barcelona were not immune to it. Does it surprise anyone that the overall debt under Laporta´s reign ballooned close to €500 million euros? That´s more than Valencia´s.
Now Laporta has hit out at his former Vice-President, and lest you think that this is a pro-Rosell argument, let me just say that I am in agreement with him to a certain extent. This legal action to sue Laporta and his board of directors isn´t a measured response to a troubling financial dilemma that Rosell faces as President. This is a very public and very open expression of a private battle between two very similar characters. From removing Johann Cruyff as an honorary President, to nixing on the €350 million redesign of the Camp Nou, to freezing foreign membership in the club, it has all been of a mind to remove any lasting physical evidence of Laporta´s reign as President, or at least it seems that way to me.
The club socios may not have liked Johann Cruyff but he was an invaluable asset. Having him around as the public face of the club, at least on the Sporting end, allowed Pep and Txiki Begiristain to perform their jobs with the minimum of public scrutiny. Any criticism that the club took was gladly absorbed by the crotchety Dutchman. His mentoring of a young coach like Guardiola was essential in their winning of the six trophies two years ago. His effect on the club is obvious by his absence this year. The rest looks like, to an outsider like myself, an insular and short-sighted reaction to pressing problems. If there is double-digit unemployment in Spain, how do you close yourself to membership in growing markets in the Far East? If there is a highly contested new season, both domestically and in Europe, and your rival has been renewed and reloaded at your expense, why do you bring such a public focus to financial irregularities at this particular moment in time? It is a distraction that could have drastic consequences on the season as a whole. Might there have been another way and another time to handle this mess?
I must admit, I like Sandro Rosell. I think the former Nike executive has a lot to bring to the boardroom at FC Barcelona, but to be President at Barca you need more than business acumen and a perfectly tailored suit. You need to lead. You need to think progressively while never losing sight of the qualities that typify FC Barcelon and right now he´s lost that on both counts. I don´t see how blaming Laporta solves anything. Then again, as history explains, this political game between candidates is nothing if not par for the course. Some of the greatest wounds that FC Barcelona has received have been self-inflicted.
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