Time for Bartomeu to Resign and Call for New Elections.

 

Mission Accomplished. Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu have reached their goal of creating their own legacy apart from Joan Laporta’s legacy. They inherited one of the greatest teams to ever set foot on a pitch and set about on changing the club’s identity that of success to that of farcical failure, all in the pursuit of making the club profitable. This is the end. The masterminds behind the downfall of FC Barcelona must leave now so that the members can elect someone more competent to run this club.

Yesterday’s embarrassing defeat should bring down the curtains on Bartomeu and his stooges. Pique spoke to the media following that demoralizing loss and had this to say, “We can’t be in Europe like this. The club needs changes, structural ones, not players or managers. I’m the first to leave if new blood is needed, because now, we’ve hit rock bottom. We can’t keep covering it up any longer.” Barto also spoke to the media, calling the loss a disaster and that “we have not been the team we are, or the club we represent. We are very sorry for that.” It was great to see him squirm in front of the cameras, after the Barça players and Setién were a public humiliation for the whole world to see.

Nonetheless, it's too late for apologies from Barto. This president and his board have become experts in incompetence, and the idea of allowing Barto and his board from making more decisions that shape Barça's future would be grossly negligent. For far too long, they have been allowed to run this club to the ground with their poor decisions not just how they ran the football team, but with La Masia, the basketball team and the other professional teams. The time has come for them to leave now.

Barça continue to regress, with every Champions League exit worse than the last one. Last year, Jordi Alba responded to criticism from fans after their 4-0 loss to Liverpool by saying that Barcelona have spoiled people by winning so many titles. Yes, we have been spoiled. We have one of the greatest footballers in history and the club surrounded him with mediocre players and coaches. Barto’s blueprint for success resembles a house of cards next to an open window during a tornado. The time has come to for someone else to run the club.

Meet the 5 FC Barcelona Presidential Candidates.

The paperwork has been submitted and the signatures have been collected. The five men will be running in the FC Barcelona Presidential Elections on July 18, 2015 will be Bartomeu, Laporta, Benedito, Freixa, and Cuberta.

Bartomeu, Laporta, Benedito, Freixa, and Cuberta are the names we will be hearing about for the next 11 days. Four of the Five worked together once and two former presidents will face one another in this month’s elections. The first debate took place yesterday with all the candidates except Bartomeu, being present to explain their platforms. Here are your candidates:

Joan Laporta

Mr. Laporta is a former president who saw one of the greatest eras in club history in not just football, but other sports as well, will be running again. The attorney and former politician first came on the Blaugrana scene during the 1997 FC Barcelona presidential elections as part of Àngel Fernández’s group and a year later, he was a member of the “Elefant Blau” opposition group of then Barça president Josep Lluis Nunez. Laporta would then be part of Lluis Bassat's team in 2000 where they would lose to Joan Gaspart in the elections. In 2003, Laporta won the Barça presidential elections and would remain as president until 2010, surviving a vote of no confidence in the process. Three of the other candidates running in this election were part of his board After leaving Barça, he entered the political world by becoming a member of the Catalan Parliament as an MP and as an advisor. However he is now gunning for another term as Barça’s president. He does come with some baggage since he is known for being an arrogant blowhard  at times at times along with incidents such as the Uzbekistan case, spying over directors case and being sued by the previous board over financial irregularities. However, he was never found guilty of any wrongdoing in the end.

Josep Maria Bartomeu

Mr. Bartomeu is the most recent president of FC Barcelona after stepping down following the conclusion of this season that saw Barça capture the treble. He was selected as the next Barça president by previous president Sandro Rosell when he resigned in 2014. A businessman, he is a member and advisor of two businesses: Adelte Group and Equipo Facility Services. He was a member of Laporta’s regime where he was responsible for the basketball and handball teams from 2003 to 2005 before parting ways after being replaced as director of the basketball team by resigning with Sandro Rosell and Toni Freixa. In 2010, he would return to Barça under Sandro Rosell as sporting vice-president, before taking over as the president of the club in January 2014 after the resignation of Sandro Rosell. He also comes with some baggage such as his handling of the youth players FIFA case that resulted in FIFA Transfer ban and it was under his watch that Barça B suffered relegation while the basketball team has struggled to overthrow Real Madrid as the best in Spain, the failed lawsuit against the previous board over financial irregularities, and being charged, along with Sandro Rosell, with alleged tax fraud regarding the signing of Neymar that could lead to a prison sentence.

Agusti Benedito

Mr. Benedito is a former Barça presidential candidate who is running for the position yet again. Just like Laporta, the businessman first came on the scene during the 1997 presidential campaign of Angel Fernandez and then was part of the founding members of 'Elefant Blau'. After selling part of his business conglomerate, he became a manager and advisor within his family businesses. Just like Bartomeu, he was a member of Laporta’s team during the 2003 elections and was involved with the of the Sports Commission and Social Commission of the club until he resigned in February 2009 following a disagreement with Laporta over the 'Uzbekistan case' which linked then president Laporta with the sale of RCD Mallorca to a Barcelona client. He ran in the 2010 Barça elections and finished second to Sandro Rosell.

Toni Freixa

Mr. Freixa, is former board member of presidents Joan Laporta, Sandro Rosell and most recently, Josep Maria Bartomeu and is now running for the first time for the presidency. An attorney and law professor, he has been involved with Barça elections in the past. He volunteered during the campaign of Lluis Bassat during the 2000 elections, which Joan Laporta was a member of that group. Three years later, he was part of Joan Laporta’s board after the latter became president. He was a member of the club’s Disciplinary Commission from 2005 till 2005 before resigning from the board along with Sandro Rosell and Bartomeu. He was part of the Sandro Rosell team for the 2010 Barça elections and was a club secretary and spokesperson until he was stripped of those duties by Bartomeu in February 2014. Even though he did not have a role with the board, he remained a member until this summer.

Seguiment FCB ‘s Joan Batiste Cuberta

Mr. Cuberta is the visible face the Barça fan group, Seguiment FCB, who have promoted various ideas through social network in order to improve the club. Not much is known of Mr. Cuberta however, the group began as a Facebook Group known as 'Monitoring of the requests for Barcelona tickets' because of the problems faced by Barça fans regarding travelling for games. This became a fundamental part of their manifesto and gained them 3000 followers/members. Furthermore,  one of the two fundamental points for Seguiment FCB involve having an agency for travelling fans whereby proposing the creation of a travel agents that puts the needs of the fans ahead of economic interests. Another pillar of their campaign is an atmosphere stand to improve the atmosphere at the Camp Nou during matches and also taking this stand to away Barça's games too.

Barça Needs Elections to Clean House.

2015 is upon us and we are already facing an enormous crisis with our beloved Barça. Barça’s weekend loss to Real Sociedad was followed with the dismissal of Andoni Zubizarreta as the club’s Sporting Director. Pressure is building against manager Luis Enrique and club president Josep Bartomeu, especially with talk of fallout between the manager and Messi. Without a doubt, this is the beginning of the end for this Barça board. 

When the CAS dismissed Barça’s appeal of the FIFA transfer ban, we knew heads were going to roll. Zubi was the likely scapegoat for the club thanks to his personality and his track record in the transfer market.  After Barça’s loss to Real Sociedad, he basically signed his death warrant with his comments to the media. When asked about the transfer ban, Zubi replied, "I assume my responsibility as the person in charge of the football department, but the sporting vice president at the time, Josep Maria Bartomeu, is the one who knew the situation better than anyone." The next day, the club announced that Zubi was sacked.

Zubi decided not to go down without dragging people with him. However, Zubi was correct in his statement. Even though he was the sporting director, president Bartomeu was in fact the one responsible for the Athletic Area of the Club. Yet, Zubi seems to be the one who is paying the price of this error. Nevertheless, that is enough. This board has to got to go. It’s time to call for elections, not in the summer, but now. Of course, that cannot happen so we should expect elections in the summer. My disdain for this board is no secret and there is no reason to discuss in depth the mistakes of this board during both, the presidency of Sandro Rosell and Josep Bartomeu. Graham Hunter, who wrote a marvelous book about Guardiola’s Barça, summarized the failure of this club.

In summary, recent years have seen Barcelona divorce themselves from their spiritual leader, Cruyff; cause Pep Guardiola to feel alienated then leave his post as manager; lose their elected president Rosell over the way Neymar was recruited to the club; misjudge the consecutive coaching appointments of Gerardo Martino and Luis Enrique; disgracefully mishandle Eric Abidal's contractual situation; sack Antoni Rossich, their director general; receive from FIFA a ban from the transfer market and lose at the Court for Arbitration for Sport a hopeless appeal, which was formulated simply to suspend the ban so that the club could restock the squad last summer; haemorrhage football credibility and competitiveness; alienate their best ever goalkeeper; sack their director of football and, finally, mishandle Messi so comprehensively that there is a real danger he opts to leave.

What Mr. Hunter forgot to mention was Barça selling out the club to Qatar via Qatar Foundation/ Qatar Airways, the board losing their lawsuit against the previous president Laporta and his board, lack finding a sponsor for the basketball team shirt, and there’s also the upcoming MCM breach of contract case where MCM are seeking €100 million in damages. So quite frankly, the fans are tired of this club constantly finding itself in a new scandal. Now, we have a fallout between Messi and Luis Enrique where there is talk the manager’s days are numbered.

 Messi did not show up to yesterday’s training session that was open to the public, which upset Lucho. Allegedly, Messi had gastroenteritis and could not make it but then turned heads when he followed Chelsea on Instagram. Perhaps it is a message to the board that he is fed up with the dictatorial style of Lucho, which quite frankly has not resulted in much success or a boost of confidence amongst the players and the fans. Sport conducted a poll that shows the fans are in favor of the player over the manager.

I did caution that people should not expect Barça under Lucho to be like Pep. Both may have played together but both come from different schools of thought. Pep is a Cruyff pupil while Lucho was managed by the likes of Bobby Robson, Louis van Gaal, Rexach and Antic to name a few. So it is not surprising he acts like van Gaal and Mourinho. Unfortunately, Lucho has adopted Mourinho’s toxic attitude and we saw how bad things ended up at Madrid for Mou. We are witnessing the same Mou Casillas battle at Barça with Lucho and Messi. Quite frankly, you would be insane to say Messi has to go. It would be the equivalent of Bulls fans wanting to side with the ownership over Michael Jordan during his prime, especially when voiced his opinionon what his team should do and how he would walk if his coach and Scottie Pippen were not kept. Great players need to be listened to, especially if you are building a team around them, which Barça has done a poor job thus far.

Of course, president Bartomeu is not an idiot. He will not go down in history as the man who sold Messi to Chelsea or any other team. We will see what he has to say tomorrow when he addresses the media. What is obvious is that it is time for a change. Rosell and Bartomeu inherited a great team from Laporta, while he inherited a disaster from Gaspart and Reyna. Barça were once considered one of, if not, the best team in the world. However, this team has regressed under this leadership with Barça being competitors instead of contenders, and Barça B under Eusebio are hovering right about the relegation zone. Financial stability does not mean much when you’re not winning titles and of course it is a profit when bonuses are not being paid to players for not winning titles. Everything reeks, even though they are still competing for all three titles, there is no sense of optimism anymore and they could be out of all three competitions in a couple of months. Thus, it’s time for the board to resign and call for early elections this summer while a Managing Commission takes over for the rest of the season so we can have a clean house of board, football manager, and B team manager. That’s the best way to give the fans some hope and ease the tension for now.

Rosell’s Departure Mean New Elections Must Be Held This Summer.

FC Barcelona saw its president Sandro Rosell step down and was replaced by Vice-President Josep Maria Bartomeu. For some, the end of Rosell’s era was welcomed after watching him rule the club in an unpopular fashion. Overall, Rosell’s time as club president had its share of ups and down but the era at the club was full of success shrouded in controversy. However, his final act in appointing Bartomeu his successor is not one for him to make, but one for the club members to make, and as a result, elections need to be brought forward this summer for the election of a new Barça president.

I was one of the many who never was a fan of Sandro Rosell and I am not surprised that the heat finally got to him. I previously mentioned back in September that “the fans cannot accept or tolerate a presidency that is run on broken promises and lack of transparency. Rosell should know, he was allegedly one of the behind the scenes players in Laporta’s Censure Motion. Like the old saying goes, “What goes around, comes around” and it is Rosell’s turn to sit on the hot seat and see who jumps ship.”Well he did in fact jump ship.

Rosell mentioned his final address as club president that he had endured threats directed at him professionally and personally; aimed at himself and his family. That is deplorable and is never ever tolerable and I hope the culprits are found and punished to the extreme letter of the law. Former president Laporta also encountered threats, and even attacks, from the Boixos Nois too during his reign. There are democratic means of protesting objection, and violence or threats of violence is never acceptable nor tolerable.

Nevertheless, Rosell’s era seemed to upset fans and club members which made the club seem distant and out of touch at times. Rosell’s presidency had its share of controversial moments.  I mentioned back in September some of those decisions such changing the rules in becoming a member, “Socio”, the Qatar Foundation sponsorship deal forced upon the club without members voting on it first, outsourcing Barça TV to Madrid based company that turned out to be a bad idea when a video leaked Xavi’s off the record comments about Real Madrid which embarrassed the player.

Another issue of content was Rosell’s interest in exacting petty revenge against Laport and Cruyff, the two men who he never got along with and resulted in him  stepping down as Vice-President after the conclusion of the 2004-2005 season. His beef with Cruyff was an embarrassing moment for the club after the fallout for refusing to acknowledge the honorary president title bestowed upon by Laporta and that the club had neglected to make payments to Cruyff’s foundation that was finally paid this season. Some attribute these factors as part of the reason why the club’s most successful manager, Pep Guardiola, decided to walk away from the club.

There is also the disappointing treatment of its players during his time. Both Abidal and basketball player Pete Mickeal were let go after being told that they would be welcome back after conquering their serious medical problems. Furthermore, David Villa was sold for a low transfer while they dropped the ball with up and coming star Thiago. Rumors have it that the club’s greatest goalkeeper of all time, Victor Valdés, is also leaving because of differences with the club. However, Vice President Javier Faus’s recent comments that he did not believe Messi’s contract should be improved was indeed an embarrassing black eye and painted a poor picture of the club.

For all Rosell’s flaws, the club still continued to be successful on the pitch and did make strides with regards to social media. Furthermore, Rosell did bring financial stability to this club and its coffers but there are doubts since some dispute how badly the club was in debt by the time the time he took over. It wouldn’t surprise me if the next regime also investigates this regime’s finances in the future. Some also wonder if the club’s positive finances is more because the club gutted other sports sections of the club such as the basketball team which is one of the biggest clubs in Spain and Europe but remain sponsor less on their kits.

In the end, Rosell was his own worst enemy with many unpopular decisions and controversy such as being under investigation in Brazil thanks to his ties with Ricardo Teixeira, the former Brazilian Football Confederation president; his ties with Viagogo company which is a company allowed to resell Barça tickets; not allowing free admittance to children in El Clasico this year; his ties with the hooligans Boixos Nois, the ones who attacked Laporta, after the Grada joven project in one of the stands of the Camp Nou fell through amidst police objections, and allegations of impropriety in the Neymar transfer. He also had a knack of not presenting himself well when addressing the media with embarrassing comments such as the elimination of color copies to save money and indicating that the club was struggling to pay wages just painted a poor image of the president.

Rosell promised us transparency as club president and yet nothing was ever transparent when he was in charge. However, his era has ended, or so it seems. Josep Maria Bartomeu is now the acting president and it seems that Rosell’s project will continue to be carried out till the term ends in 2016. I met Mr. Bartomeu once during the dinner hosted by the Penya a few years and he was very friendly and courteous. He sure did receive a lot of praise for his demeanor and style in talking to the media the following day after Rosell’s farewell speech. However, action speaks louder than words and he has the rest of the season to audition for this position.

I said audition because this new president Bartomeu should not be allowed to run the club till 2016. Sandro Rosell was elected by the members as the club’s president. The members should be the ones to choose who should be the next president or Bartomeu will forever be considered a puppet for Rosell and will never be taken seriously. If he believes he is worthy of being Rosell’s successor, then he should run for the position himself in the summer. When former presidents Josep Lluís Núñez and Joan Gaspart resigned, their successor only lasted till the end the season before elections took part. That same protocol should apply here. Lest we forget that, it was Rosell who opposed Joan Laporta’s appointment of Cruyff as honorary club president without the club members voting on it. The club belongs to the members and they should choose who should run it.

Thus, Mr. Bartomeu has till the end of the season to win over voters. He has the upper hand against any would be potential candidate. His actions from here till the end of the season will paint a picture of what type of president he will. However, the members should be the ones who decide who should be Rosell’s successor, not Rosell. Elections have to take place this summer.