DERMOT CORRIGAN: Barca’s bickering board
You would expect their elders and supposed betters in the executive boxes to behave themselves more maturely. But they do not at Barcelona.
On Monday the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that former Barca president Joan Laporta and seven ex-board members owed the club €23.2m. This decision stems from a move by club socio (member) Vicenc Pla to hold the eight to a promise, made in 2003, to guarantee a €23.2m deficit from the previous season.
At the time the guarantee was reportedly an accounting move, made to balance the club’s delicate financial position when Laporta replaced Joan Gaspart as president, and never really expected to be called in. The 2013 board sees things differently. Following an executive meeting on Tuesday, spokesperson Toni Freixa said they would pursue the money.
“It is a clear sentence and the decision is unquestionable,” Freixa said.
“We expect that we will receive the guarantee, because we live in a society which respects the law.”
Laporta has no intention of paying up, and claims the whole episode is a dirty tricks campaign against him led by Barca’s current president Sandro Rosell.
“They are the ones who have made the claims,” he told Catalan radio that evening. “They are hiding behind Vicenc Pla and want to discredit our good management. It is shameful.”
Such factional fighting at Barca is no real surprise. Laporta and Rosell were originally allies, but have been feuding since falling out in 2005. The week’s most interesting development was Rosell apparently recruiting former Barca president Josep Lluis Nuñez into his camp, by surprisingly inviting the 81-year-old to Tuesday’s board meeting.
Nuñez brought Diego Maradona and a first European Cup to the club, but his 22-year reign is now recalled for questionable financial dealings and regular rows with Barca legend Johan Cruyff.
Cruyff is a Laporta man, as is former coach Josep Guardiola. It was unlikely to be a coincidence that, as this week’s machinations took place in Catalonia, Laporta, Guardiola, current boss Tito Vilanova and sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta were all in New York, where Vilanova is currently receiving medical treatment. The battle-lines were being drawn.
Under Spanish law Pla, who claims implausibly to be acting alone out of the club’s best interests, must now decide whether to enforce the court’s ruling. He will reportedly explain his position at a press conference next Tuesday, 24 hours before Barca’s Champions League campaign restarts with a potentially tricky last 16 first leg in Milan.
Lionel Messi and his team-mates looked undistracted by all the shenanigans as they won 2-1 at Granada on Saturday night. If only Rosell and his board members could show such focus too.
