The Olmo case, far from ending, seems to have been the trigger to plunge the Barça club into an institutional crisis. The opponents, this time united, point directly to the Board of Directors of FC Barcelona as guilty of the management, which they call negligence. But they go beyond complaints and demands for explanations and solutions. This Sunday, in a statement signed by ten opinion groups and platforms associated with Barcelona—among them Yes to the Futurewith Víctor Font at the helm, and I’m a Clamrepresented by Joan Camprubí—, the opposition calls for the “immediate” resignation of Joan Laporta as Barça president after the failure of the registrations of Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor and the non-signing of Thomas Heurtel for the basketball section. But they also point out other current Barça issues, such as the conflict with the cheering crowd, Darren Dein’s commission in the contract signed with Nike or the “non-following of the auditor’s criteria” in the financial closing of last season. . For all this, and appealing to the “Barcelonism” of the Board of Directors, they first ask for his resignation. If not, they propose submitting to a “question of confidence”, and in case of “no reaction”, they do not rule out activating a motion of censure.
This has been the most forceful movement of the opposition since Laporta became president, for the first time everyone united. And also that Víctor Font, candidate and main rival of the current Barça boss in the last 2021 elections, asks for his resignation and takes a more belligerent position. “The issue of the registration of these players is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, the last evidence of inability to manage a club. […] We have to prevent whoever governs the club from acting as an owner and in a totally opaque way,” Font explained on Sunday morning. to Catalunya Ràdioand assured that nothing has been explained about the sale of the VIP boxes, especially taking into account the “puff of Barça Studios” and that, less in the excitement generated by the team at a sporting level, in the rest they are “very worse” than with the inheritance left by Josep Maria Bartomeu. And he added: “We want explanations and transparency.” Three days ago, Font complained about the situation and asked for clarifications, as did the group. I’m a clamled by Camprubí, the first to ask for Laporta’s resignation. “We want to express our indignation and shame caused by the management of president Joan Laporta and the board of directors. […] The bad image is aggravated by continued lies and deception of partners with false promises,” they said then.
The mess comes at a time, furthermore, in which the Barça president has not yet appeared publicly to explain what happened with Olmo and Pau Víctor, despite having been present at the Ciudad Deportiva last Friday before the first press conference. of the year by Hansi Flick. A crisis within the framework of the 125th anniversary of the Barça club, in which the party of “exaltation of Barcelona fans” seems to have ended soon.
The reaction has occurred, above all, after the non-registration of Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor, which they have classified as “negligence.” Opponents consider that it has waited “until the last moment when the club has had four months to do so, also ceding rights for 20 years to companies from countries with which the Board promised it would never make deals, ultimately losing income for future years.” Last Saturday, LaLiga and the Royal Spanish Federation denied the Barça club’s last request to register both players. Given the refusal, Barcelona assured that they will go to the Higher Sports Council (CSD) to request a new precautionary measure after expressing their “disagreement” with the resolution of both Spanish football bodies. If the request is not successful, they would go to the ordinary courts.
This Saturday, Laporta met with Hansi Flick to inform him of the situation, and also with both players to reassure them. But the locker room, after four months of uncertainty, is still apparently hot. Ronald Araújo, in his return to the starting lineup after his long injury this Saturday against Barbastro, took the floor as one of the captains. He did not deny the obvious: “We are worried about Dani and Pau.” “It is a matter of bad taste for our teammates, but we hope it can be resolved,” he told Movistar+, adding that, as captain, he has tried to “reassure” them.
But the opponents go beyond the “chaos” of recent weeks, and assure that their statements in recent years have been a consequence of the “lack of reaction from the current Board of Directors.” “We would like the club to operate in a planned and efficient manner,” they share, but they said that they cannot “deny reality.” They consider that “the list of aggravating factors has increased significantly,” “cases of negligence are multiplying” and that the “social crisis is evident.” In the text they point out irregularities in the management of Laporta’s management. Among them, not following the auditor’s criteria in approving 23/24 accounts to “avoid recognizing ordinary losses”; the lack of transparency of the commissions that Darren Dein pocketed for mediating the agreement with Nike; the bizarre story of Thomas Heurtel not signing for the Barcelona basketball section; or the conflict with the animation stand, still unresolved.
“The image and reputation of the club, unfortunately, has been seriously damaged for some time. […] Now is the time to demonstrate true Barcelonaism,” they share in the statement. In the history of Barcelona there are already precedents for votes of no confidence and, in fact, Joan Laporta has been involved in two of them. In 1998 he was the driving force as the visible head of the group Blue Elephant against the board headed by Josep Lluís Núñez, although without success. Laporta, just ten years later, in 2008 during his first stage as Barça president, suffered the vote of no confidence in person, although he did not succeed either as he lacked six points to reach the necessary 66.6%. And precisely at the end of 2020, threatened with a vote of no confidence, Bartomeu resigned without undergoing this process. Then the elections began in which Laporta and Font, mainly, competed for the Barça presidency. Four years later, within the framework of the culé anniversary overshadowed by controversies, history could repeat itself.
