Joan Laporta will live a second stage at the helm of Barcelona, after sweeping Víctor Font and Toni Freixa in the elections to become the second most voted president in the history of the Barça club. The motto “We will do it again” was undeniably fulfilled and the speech as casual as it was close, with the memory of the best years of the club in the foreground above programs, projects and names, proved essential to convince in a way majority to a social mass in need of self-esteem.
Laporta’s charisma could with everything from the day he presented his image with a gigantic canvas right next to the Santiago Bernabéu. The message, forceful, meant a masterstroke from which the conviction of Víctor Font morphed into concern first and disappointment later.
Laporta won and a new era begins at Barça … But what now? The challenges facing the new president are no small thing. He must urgently straighten out a critical economic situation, face the profound remodeling of the Camp Nou and shape a new sports project that, with Leo Messi in the foreground, places the team in the foreground.
Management
The first hours after the electoral victory served to know that the General Director of the multinational MediaMarkt Ferran Reverter will be the new strong man of the club, the CEO who will replace Òscar Grau, that Mateo Alemany will be the Sports General Director with Jordi Cruyff, who could travel to Barcelona this week, as Sports Director.
Accompanied by his inseparable Rafael Yuste and Elena Fort, Jaume Giró ventures as a fundamental piece in the new management of the club for a Laporta that after his personal aurea, beyond his captivating personality and indisputable charisma, must cede command to the professionals, surround yourself with efficient managers, know how to listen, be advised and lead a command as firm as it is shared.
It will be necessary to wait to see if the new / old president, maintaining the spirit of the past, is capable of adapting to this new future.
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You reduce the debt
Barcelona has, recognized, a total debt close to 1,200 million euros and a net of almost 500. It owes 365 million in transfers and before the end of this season it must face payments worth close to 277. The economic managers of the new board of directors, with Jaume Giró (economic vice president) at the helm, they understand that it is essential to “refinance” that debt, reaching agreements with the banking entities, since Laporta himself warned on the same Sunday night that negotiating payment arrears with other clubs for the signings understood it “impossible”.
But the great financial plan established by the new Barça managers is explained through the issuance of bonds that grant immediate liquidity to the club, estimated at about 200 million euros in the short term, which are divided between large and small investors, always without endanger the survival and independence of the entity.
From the Management Board, weeks ago it slipped that there was an external proposal to invest 250 million to enter Barça Corporated, taking 49 percent of its value, which in the absence of confirmation by the new board would also mean another important source of income. However, the new president was already in favor of closing individual agreements with each of the business lines rather than doing it in a generic way, understanding that this would be more beneficial for the club.
“If liquidity is obtained in the short term, the most necessary, it is possible to reduce the financial tension and refinance the debt with less problems,” a source from Laporta’s candidacy revealed to ESPN Deportes, acknowledging that the situation “is worrying” but, warning in an indisputable way that the Barça brand and the power of the club “is always a guarantee”.
Messi
With less than four months until the captain ends his contract with Barça, his improbable continuity, on everyone’s lips for months, took a complete turn on Sunday with a simple image: seeing him at the Camp Nou voting for the first time in his lifetime. Leo Messi transferred the message that the club feels as its own, in a certain way he made himself forgive for the episode of the burofax of August 2020 and without having to say anything, he restored hope to the Barça fan.
“I solve Messi with a barbecue”, said last week, sly, Laporta, convinced that the personal relationship he has maintained for 18 years with the Argentine star was, is, the best letter of introduction to convince him of his permanence in the club. More seriously, this Sunday, he revealed the need to convince him through “an exciting sports project and an offer in accordance with the possibilities of the club”, discovering his immediate intention to sit down with his father to address the situation .
The new president has in his favor that close relationship with Messi and his closest environment. So much so that without proclaiming it, no one publicly assures that the Argentinean announced his intention to vote on Sunday morning and congratulated him at night on his electoral victory, understanding from there the ballot that he introduced in the ballot box. … A good way to start, but not at all definitive.
Laporta has the charisma and the capacity for seduction in his favor, but he will have to know first-hand if that personal closeness is enough to convince a Leo who, on the way to 34 years old, shows the need to feel part of a winning project in the short term. term. Beyond money, which can also influence, the new president will have to show him that reality. And it is not known how much each part will weigh on the scale.
The wage bill
If Font and Freixa openly bet on continuing to reduce the salary mass of the Barça squad, Laporta was much more restrained in that section during the campaign. In fact, he ended up making it clear that it is a matter of difficult management, warning, without the need to say it openly, that the signed contracts are to be fulfilled. And he did affirm, without hesitation, that he has no intention of cutting further.
The reason? “Jan knows the players first-hand, not only personally many of them, but he knows their concerns and their way of being. He cannot present himself with threats that, moreover, have neither meaning nor basis” is appealed from the core hard of the new president.
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In addition to Messi, the most urgent to finish his contract, the new president will have to start negotiating the contracts of Dembélé, Sergi Roberto or rookie Ilaix Moriba that end in 2022 and do so with financial agility that will be a major challenge. The others have signed longer-term agreements that the president considers, to begin with, untouchable … Or not.
Laporta has the confidence of the players and, in parallel, he has the need to make them understand that, perhaps, it is necessary to make some more sacrifice in favor of the club, of the sporting project of which they are part of the first person. “Sow to reap” is proclaimed. Will it be the best argument?
Koeman
“He is a legend at the club and deserves respect. A lot of respect and support.” These are personal words from Joan Laporta, repeated in recent days and proclaimed once his victory was confirmed at the polls. Ronald Koeman is, indeed, a very special personality in the Barça universe, which may not be understood in depth by those who did not experience his stage as a footballer closely, but it is indisputable for those who did.
And the new president is one of these. He is close to the coach because of what it means, because of his relationship with Johan Cruyff and because, in a way, he must feel indebted to him after being his first bet in 2003, he did not end up betting on him, in favor of Rijkaard, for rejecting pay a transfer to Ajax, the club that Koeman then managed.
But, even more so, Laporta attends to his blind trust in Koeman by the facts more than by the sensations. The coach accepted the monumental challenge of returning to Barça at a critical moment in all respects and sportingly has become the leader of a dressing room that has rallied around him. He has given a field to the youngsters and the team has grown in an irregular but true way.
If in January 2004 he was able to keep a Rijkaard that was much more touched than Koeman through thick and thin, there is nothing to suggest that Laporta now intends to question the coach’s future. Offering him confidence, as he did this Monday by greeting him and encouraging him personally, is considered a fact. Although, as always, the results will be what they decide.
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With goals from Jordi Alba and Ilaix Moriba, the Blaugrana team beat Osasuna in El Sadar.
Camp Nou … and Montjüic
“We cannot deceive the subscriber. If the remodeling is done in parts it will be more expensive and uncomfortable and when the deck has to be raised, from the grass, it will not be possible to play,” the new president warned this Sunday night. A full-blown notice.
If from the candidacies of Font and Freixa it was ruled out “totally” to leave the Camp Nou and move to the Montjuïc stadium while the works last, the situation is much less clear in the Laporta team. Elena Fort, who is aiming for the social vice-presidency and has thoroughly studied the remodeling of the Barça stadium, has not hidden her favorable position towards this transfer even though it provokes controversy.
The Olympic Stadium has a capacity of 56 thousand fans, less than the more than 80 thousand subscribers that the club has, and even proposing a provisional expansion it is understood that it is impossible to go beyond 70 thousand seats, with which it should be ‘drawn around’ assistance. Furthermore, other business lines that the Camp Nou has would be harmed and, causing this obvious discomfort to the fans, it would also be an economic problem …
But “you have to choose between the discomfort of spending five or six years staying in our house, and taking into account that there will always be a minimum of 20 thousand injured subscribers, or betting for two, three years maximum, to play in Montjuïc”, he explained to ESPN Fort, without hiding his deep doubts but coldly understanding the need to decide.
Future … and present
Some would say “the party is over” and others “the party begins.” Unleashed and euphoric, Joan Laporta celebrated by jumping and singing the electoral victory in an image that fell among the partners. “It is an injection of self-esteem. We all need it,” he argued from his closest environment, realizing that the years have turned the president into a more focused character but maintaining his explosive character …
Barça fans bet unreservedly on the explosion of joy and charisma that Laporta personalizes. Chapter two begins, a ‘Back to the future’ in which it will be necessary to see if, as in 2003, it turns depression into success. Thinking of a better future, the present is already overwhelming him.