The Rosell resignation: Is Barca more than a club?


 

More than thirty years of journalism, much of it investigative, with one of the most respected newspapers in the world- The Financial Times- taught me to be mindful of  two of the contradictory threads  in human nature: there is often more cock-up than conspiracy, while there is seldom smoke without fire.

 

In the absence of the full facts of the case being in the open, and  pending the outcome of an ongoing judicial enquiry , I am  reluctant to jump  too quickly to  any conclusions about the current goings on at FC Barcelona, off the pitch.

But as this is a  club that I have publicly commented on  for many years and to which  I feel part of me  belongs as a fan and a paid up member,   I cannot remain silent, lest this might be interpreted  as indifference. Of one thing I am clear:   the sudden resignation of  Barca president Sandro Rosell raises more questions than answers with the act itself-impetuous rather than calculated or widely consulted according to a high level source- doing the club no favors as it enters the most competitive stage of the season.

If this is a conspiracy, it begs the question as to who is behind it and what the motivation might be? A senior executive of Barca I dined with earlier this week suggested that the negative commentary about Barca under the Rosell presidency from the questioning of his controversial sponsorship contract with Qatar and Pep Guardiola’s departure through to allegations of unpaid taxes by the Messi family and now the Neymar deal  came from unnamed persons, envious of Barca‘s success and  determined to undermine the good name of Catalunya as it presses for its right to hold a referendum on independence from Madrid-a right wished for by 80 per cent of the current membership.

That would suggest  that not just tax inspectors, and judges, but some of Barca’s own members, former star players and managers (inter alia the emblemic Johan Cruyff), and ex club executives  who have been critical of  Rosell’s  personality and governance are really working actively on an anti-Catalan or anti-Barca  agenda and in some cases, like Jordi Cases,  paid up double-agents.

Mr Cases, in case you didn’t know this by now, is the individual nicknamed by some Barca  excecutives ‘el diablo‘ or the devil. He has been a thorn in the side of the Rosell regime  for over four years, specifically since 2010 when he and other Barca fans helped launch an unsuccessful   campaign to try and stop FC Barcelona from breaking with tradition and selling its strip not just for money,  but to a Arab country with a disputed record on human rights  and allegations of corruption hanging over it.

 Mr Cases runs a pharmacy in Barcelona not far away from the Nou Camp. He is a paid up member of FC Barcelona. Politically he declares himself a Catalan nationalist and in favour of independence from Spain . Today, after Rosell had resigned,  Mr Cases was reported to have suggested  that dark anti-Catalan forces had used him for their own purpouses , thus fuelling the conspiracy within the conspiracy theory. But until now he appears to have had more in common ideologically with former FC Barcelona chief turned radical politician Joan Laporta than Real Madrid’s Florentino Perez.

An alternative narrative is that Rosell whose dealings in Brazil date back many years to his time as a senior Nike executive,  could have foreseen that the Neymar contract was always bound to be subject to scrutiny and could have saved himself and the club a lot of trouble if he had insisted on a straight deal  with the various parties that appear to have been involved in aspects of  the contract.

What I have been  told by  a usually reliable source  about the Neymar deal suggests that it was far from straight forward,  that arrangements were made to try and minimise Spanish tax liability, that  Rosell agreed to raise the price the club was prepared  to pay and signed  under some pressure, with fears -perhaps inflated by interested parties-that the Brazilian’s representatives were in an advanced stage of a counter bid by Real Madrid, in breach of earlier understandings.

Rosell certainly did not share Mr Cases’s  belief that he Mr Cases, as as a paid up member of a club owned by its members, had every right  to demand chapter and verse of Barca‘s financial dealings , whether involving major sponsorship deals, TV contracts , ticketing,stadium construction, or indeed players,however many goals they score.

Mr Rosell has repeatedly insisted that there is nothing sinister behind the euros 57 million he says was paid for Neymar, believes that Barca fans should be thankful that he paid a great deal less for a better player than Real Madrid paid for Gareth Bale, and that only confidential  clauses has prevented him  from revealing more details. Perhaps club presidents, agents, and players  around the world have been getting away with this kind of attitude for many years, believing  that total financial transparency is not good for the morale of the dressing room, and let alone of the fans who generally earn much less and pay more tax and most of whom at the end of the day just want to see their team play well, and win.

 But by its own definition, Barca is mes que un club ,  more than a club- it aspires to exemplary human conduct not just in the quality of its football , but in the way the club engages with the world, in the way it claims to have a true sense of the common good beyond commercial gain or even personal ambition.

Sandro Rosell should know that the best reputations endure on the basis of honesty not obfuscation. For if he doesn’t, his resignation will come back to haunt him as a less than honourable act of escape.

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Comments

  1. Eduardo says:

    1) Independence from Spain, not from Madrid. It’s indeed not the same thing
    2) You seem to mixture anti-Catalan with anti-Rosell. Former employees will hardly be anti Catalan.
    3) When you have had presidents such as Nuñez, Gaspart and Laporta, mes que um club sounds like a joke. And obviously, Barcelona are not alone in that.

  2. Steven says:

    Jimmy, thanks for your perspective.

    Could Rosell have stepped aside to help lower the temp of the argument? A sudden resignation is almost never good but at least the focus of the (very hot) spotlight is not on a single individual now.

  3. Captain Terry says:

    I appreciate Jimmy not remaining silent in the light of the highly damaging repercussions of a series of events, culminating in the resignation of Rosell.

    I would also be interested in a debate here in this blog as Jimmy has many fellow friends who are Barça supporters. But unfortunately for him, another friend lurks here, Captain Terry, who for years has been trying to deflate 2 massive urban myths about Barça: that it is “more than a club”, and that ticky-tacky football is the ultimate in football, an art.

    Lets brush the second fallacy away (again!). It is a style which kills the essence of the game. Football is an entertainment, a game played by 2 opposing sides. If one team holds onto the ball for 80% of the time it becomes a bore to watch. The Barça style, simply throttles the fun out of the game: it is just narcissistic control.

    As for “more than a club”…..!! The truth is that you are just like an other club.

    Perhaps worse than most clubs. You set yourself up as “more” and the dizzy heights your propaganda has propelled you too, means the fall and aftershock is far more intense.

    Forget all the conspiracy theories, forces trying to undermine independence, tax evasion, Madrid about to pounce, etc. etc.

    Look at the facts:-

    You have had a series of Presidents, from Nuñez, Laporta, Rosell, and its now looking like his successor Bartomeu, who are simply bog standard Spanish caciques, out to make the most of their position usually by enriching themselves.

    Your sponsor is a one-party state with a deplorable reputation on human rights.

    Pep’s departure has never been explained properly. All I recall him doing was being an ambassador for Qatar……. nobody seems to ask at what price.

    Your golden boy’s entourage is being investigated for laundering Colombian narco money. He has already been accused by the Spanish tax authorities of evading taxes, and since settled by paying over 5 million.

    Now your ex President is being investigated for rewarding Neymar’s entourage with 38 million. After trying to hold on for 4 days, he then resigned.

    Your previous President is also under investigation for embezzling funds.

    Jimmy, it stinks.

    If you were really interested to avoid it fast becoming “less” than a club, then clean it out.

    The only light in the whole story is a the ethical stance of the honrable Sr. Case. Why don’t you join forces with him and see if it is possible to TRULLY create a club that exemplifies human conduct and has a true sense of the common good beyond commercial gain or even personal ambition?

    If you do then join forces and try to clean the apparent endemic corruption present in your club, I wish you all the luck in the world………..

  4. DavidM says:

    For a non Barça supporter is dificult to guess what’s happening now in Barça, non being catalan makes it more difficult.

    Futbol Club Barcelona is an association, neither a company or a charity, it means that the members are owners of the association.

    In 1284-1286 there was a crusade against the king of Aragon and Catalonia, Peter the second made a deal with catalan parliament, he got its support against the Roman Pope but he should called the parliament every year. The catalan parliament had the right to give the kingdom the person he wants.

    The sense of equality is rooted in catalan history, it has blossomed with the spanish democracy. Nowadays, free speechness, the sense of belonging to Catalonia, the frustration of spanish democracy and the crisis has engaged political activism with social activism. After centuries (I am not jocking) of Spanish Inquisition culture has made the people to make their opinions or actions bolder. That’s the ground for Cases.

    About Rosell’s resignation is more difficult to tell; the victimization, the fear from the others, the sense of isolation when you have a position of power and the sense of responsibility could do it. It remembers me why I joined an association for the sake of democracy, transparency and justice.

    It makes sense why I disagree with Captain Terry. You can realize from his words a kind of crusade for equality in mediocrity, he will never get the catalan sense of life, our misticism, our idealism, our quest for excellence. We are still fighting with leviathan and Captain Terry lost that battle, allright, I respect your hopeless way, but I always stand up and share my life.

    Ramon Llull: “Poor live better endowed with hope that the rich without it”.

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