Well, elections just came and went and it was no surprise that in the end, Josep Maria Bartomeu was elected to become president of FC Barcelona again. However, even though the club is fresh of the heels of their successful treble campaign from last season, Bartomeu has many challenges that have to be properly dealt with.
The first of many challenges facing Bartomeu is that he is currently facing tax fraud charges stemming from the Neymar transfer debacle. The transfer has been under scrutiny for the way money was exchanged in the whole process. This controversy is what caused Sandro Rosell to resign and appoint Bartomeu as his successor. Barça already had to deal with one president resigning in Rosell and cannot have Bartomeu do the same thing when his tax fraud case gets too hot for him. For his sake, he needs to win that case or else Barça members and fans risk seeing another president step down and appoint another person as his successor instead of calling for elections. Presidents are supposed to be elected, not hand selected by their predecessors as they resign and walk away.
The second challenge facing Bartomeu is what to do what about the shirt sponsor. The Rosell-Bartomeu regime had no issues continuing with the Qatar sponsor on the team’s shirt. People will say it’s Qatar Foundation or Qatar Airlines, and not Qatar. True, but Qatar is run by a monarchy and Qatar Foundation and Qatar Airlines are their creations which they have a hand in operating. The fact is that Barça should have received more from Qatar, compared to other clubs’ sponsorship deals, since they are not only on the shirt, but they also have their name on the seats on the Camp Nou, the outer walls of the Camp Nou while also using images of Barça players on their advertising which is outrageous. The club is one of the best in the world and should be getting a better financial deal from a sponsor than what they have right now.
Besides obtaining a better lucrative deal, the club should get a sponsor that is also not tainted. Qatar Airways have a poor reputation for their sexiest guidelines towards their female flight attendants and a recent
online petition has garnered over 40,000 signatures asking for the club to drop them as a sponsor. The club is also aligned with the Qatar Foundation that has had imams who
preach hate on their premises. One praised the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris as “the sequel to the comedy film of 9/11” while another claimed that “Jews and their helpers must be destroyed.” Furthermore, there have been reports that Qatar is best source of financial support for ISIS which does not bode well for the image of the club. Let’s not forget how many migrants workers have been mistreated and died because of the World Cup stadiums construction in Qatar too. Is that what we want to see our players and fans represent when they put on the Barça jersey with Qatar Airways stuck on it for the world to see?
Bartomeu at least realized his mistake when Barça went with horizontal stripes on the current home shirt for this season. The backlash against that design made Bartomeu promise that next season’s home shirts will be replicas of the 1992 European Cup shirt. The problem is that he went against the vertical stripes that have been part of this club’s history in the first place and did not realize what backlash it would create is disturbing to say the least. He has to ensure that the club never abandons its values and heritage.
Furthermore, a big challenge that Bartomeu must resolve is the state of Barça B and the La Masia in general. The Rosell-Bartomeu regime inherited one of the strongest B teams of all time, along with a very good youth academy which they mismanaged. For the past few years, we have seen good players not fully develop, but instead regress or leave the club. It’s not just the players, but good youth managers leaving La Masia has impacted the club. Oscar Garcia and Sergi are two managers who should have had bigger roles with the youth academy and perhaps coaching Barça B, but instead, are no longer part of the club. Eusebio as Barça B manager never won over the fans with his style of play that seemed more concerned about results and keeping his team up over improving his players. He’s gone but the damage was done and Barça B were relegated this season which will surely hamper the development of many players who will probably have to be loaned out to gain enhanced experience.
Bartomeu named former Barça youth and first team player, Gerard Lopez, as the new Barça B manager. He is faced with the tall task of getting the B team promoted again. Sure, he follows in the footsteps of Guardiola and Luis Enrique as someone who does not have managerial experience while taking over the B team. Guardiola worked his magic and got them promoted from the fourth division to the third division and Luis Enrique took over and won promotion to the second division before departing. Lopez though is inheriting a mess of a team where some of the B team players might be sent out on loan instead of playing in the third division. Also, there are younger players who were supposed to be potential B team starlets but are heading elsewhere for better experience and opportunity. Pep Seguru will be in charge of the youth setup and he appointed Franc Garcia Pimient, the man many wanted to be Barça B’s next manager, as Gerard’s assistant, which is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, it will be enough. Not every player from La Masia will make it but the club needs to ensure players like Adama, Samper and Grimaldo who are talented enough to be on the cusp of playing for the first team do make it and not ignore or worse, discard them.
A major issue with this regime seems to be their interest in buying players and ignoring the players that came through the ranks. There is concern that this regime is following the blueprint of Florentino Perez’s Galacticos era at Real Madrid. Real Madrid were very successful in the mid 80’s thanks to their “La Quinta del Buitre” players who came through the youth setup and featured for the first team. Five consecutive La Liga titles and two UEFA Cups came from that era and perhaps it was no coincidence that the team that knocked them off their perch was Barça’s “Dream Team” that was coached by Cruyff who relied on a mix on veterans and players from the academy.
When La Liga dropped its three foreign players rule in the latter part of the 90’s, both Madrid and Barça lost their ways and began focusing more on buying foreign players than nurturing their youth teams. Sure, Madrid and Barça saw the occasional youth player get promoted to their first team such as Xavi, Iker Casillas, Puyol, Raul, Iniesta, Guti and Victor Valdés but both clubs seemed interested in trying to buy the best. It worked out for a while for Madrid when they won three Champions League titles between 1998 and 2002. However, it would take them another 12 years to win their tenth Champions League title while struggling to overcome their bitter Blaugrana rivals along with scarcely promoting players from their academy to the first team. The short term success did not pay off in the long run.
After the election of Joan Laporta in 2003, things changed in Barcelona. The Cruyff era of football returned and the youth academy began to shape up better. Suddenly, the likes of Messi, Oleguer, Bojan, Busquets, Pedro , Jeffren, Thiago, and Rafinha along with buying back former youth players such as Pique and Jordi Alba, began to feature with the first team and helped guide them to four Champions League titles in a decade. With the likes of La Masia graduates of Valdés, Puyol and Xavi, it was common to see a Barça starting eleven featuring a majority of La Masia graduates.
Nonetheless, out of the last four Champions League trophies, this recent one featured the fewest La Masia graduates. Puyol and Valdés were gone, while Xavi was on the bench with the likes of Bartra, Montoya, Rafinha and Sergi Roberto. Barça invested heavily in the likes of Neymar, and Suarez which paid off immensely last season, but the club also signed the likes of Vermaelen and Douglas when they already had Bartra and Montoya available. Montoya already left this summer and there is concern than Rafinha might contemplate his future after the recent signing of Arda Turan with Pogba also rumored to be another signing down the road. This is a telltale sign for La Masia players who must be questioning whether they have a future at this club if the club will keep buying players.
An indication on how bad things have gotten with La Masia is the fact that the current Spain U-19 team does not contain a single Barça player. That team just won the 2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. There was a time when La Masia players were representing the Spanish national team on all levels. Yet, we are now witnessing far less of them feature for their club and as a result, hardly get called up for the national team.
Now Barça did sign Aleix Vidal, another former La Masia pupil, but Montoya was already loaned out to Inter this summer. What will happen to the likes of Bartra and Rafinha? Will Barça continue to pay for foreign imports and ignore their youth like Real Madrid have been doing? That is a costly mistake both on paper and on the field. The backbone of this club’s success has always been driven by the presence of players climbing through the ranks and it cannot be ignored or neglected just because the club spent a lot of money on buying players and won a treble. As the old saying goes, “never forget your roots” which means Bartomeu cannot allow the B team to languish in the third division or allow La Masia to further regress.
Additionally, this regime of spending has its flaws. Rosell resigned when it appeared there were some irregularities in the Neymar transfer and now both he and Bartomeu are facing tax fraud charges for that transfer. Bartomeu has to end this run of attracting law suits from club members and from the government. The Neymar transfer scandal and the FIFA transfer ban, along with their
failed lawsuit against Laporta and his board, has already tarnish the club and Bartomeu needs to distance the club from the legal system.
It’s not just football that has been affected under this regime, but the basketball team has also regressed recently. FC Barcelona’s basketball team was once one of the top four teams in Europe and won the Euroleague in Laporta’s final season as president. Again, Rosell-Bartomeu regime inherited a strong basketball team, managed by the legendary coach Xavi Pascual and won back to back league titles along with one Copa del Rey in the beginning. However, Real Madrid have knocked Barça off their perch by winning two of the last three recent league titles and by defeating Barça in the last two Copa del Rey finals while also defeating Barça in the last three Spanish Supercopas. Meanwhile, Madrid has played in the last three consecutive Euroleague Finals while Barça has not made it back to a final since 2010. What’s worse is that this season, Madrid won the treble in basketball by defeating Barça in the league and Copa del Rey finals while also capturing the Euroleague. Coach Pascual is an amazing coach but he needs help and the club needs to help him by signing better players and improving the youth setup.
Finally, the president has to ensure the club is protected from attacks from outside the club and never allow the club to attack its own players. The incident where Faus made
statements about Messi should never happen again. The man deserves better than that. However, the club also needs to defend its players from whatever false and frivolous attacks from the media. It’s true that players, especially Messi, should have a PR team ready to step up if such a situation occurs, but the club should always be ready to there to defend the player, and also their fans.
So yes, Barça won the treble, however, Bartomeu cannot get blinded with the short term shine of last season’s trophies and ignore the long term vision of this club. I have quoted George Santayana before but this quote regarding progress is impossible to ignore when it comes to discussing FC Barcelona. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” As a director, Vice-President and President of FC Barcelona, Bartomeu has witnessed and experienced many things that one can only hope will ensure previous mistakes by former Barça and Real Madrid presidents will not be repeated under his watch.
