a long list of escapes highlighting the president’s loneliness

Joan Laporta In fact, he was left alone in the face of danger. Javi Hernandez He continues to lead Barça and looks set to remain so until the end of this season, but the farewell announcement takes his attention away. Now all criticism, if Barça’s first team fails to right its tattered sporting course, will be directed at Barcelona’s top leader, whose new phase at the helm of the club is proving far more turbulent than the one he has endured for more than 20 years . back when He first took control.

The sporting and institutional crisis that finally engulfed the club in the 2002/03 season, ending with resignation Joan Gaspard and a call for elections after a short tenure as Barça chairman Enric Reyna This is nothing compared to what you have in your hands now. Because the accounts are still tattered, which is a consequence of the inheritance of the mandate Josep Maria Bartomeu like a pandemic, and under the prying eye of justice due to the scandal with Negreira case, the rediscovery of sporting successes, at least partially, was a great salvation. This was the case in the last campaign, in which the team won the League and the Spanish Super Cup.

However, the wound is still open due to the unexpected exit almost through a false door Leo Messi and something like a game of cat and mouse with Florentino Perez, an ally in the creation of the Super League and at the same time an enemy both in sports and in the courts, presents the leader of Barça with a bill that is currently very difficult to compensate. The first team is not accompanied by good play, much less good results. And now the season seems empty. However, the truth is that Laporta knows how to weather storms like no one else. Since he resumed command of the club in March 2021, he has, frankly, experienced more disappointments than joys. But, despite everything, his figure seems motionless. And the earth has been cracking under our feet for a long time.

DEPARTURES

The first blow shortly after his election victory was his resignation Jaume Giroformer director of the La Caixa Foundation, will join the board of directors as vice-president for economics and eventually become minister of economy of the Generalitat. Eduard RomeuIn this case, he was responsible for the final takeover. The second, meanwhile, was the resignation of then CEO Xavier Reverter in February 2022. In this case, his functions will be assumed directly by the president himself, who always has advice from both. Enric Masipdeputy president, as well as his former son-in-law Alejandro Echevarriaa figure who in the past gained great weight due to his close relationship with the players and who today has no official connection with this organization.

There have also been several notable changes in the sports sector. One of them is the one that Mateu Alemany, a key person in many of Laporta’s acquisitions at this stage, in charge of the club, back and forth. One of Jordi Cruyfffor its part, was also symptomatic, given the president’s reverence for Johan Cruyff to whom he always turned for advice and whom he even named honorary president of the club. The person who is now responsible for managing the organization’s sports facilities is decoration that together with the current trainer of the subsidiary company, Rafa Marquezand Cameroonian Samuel Eto’oamong other things, openly supported him in the 2021 elections. It is now in his hands to determine who will finally replace Xavi, who, in fact, arrived at Barça after overcoming some initial resistance (always denied) from the current president. .

That year, 2021, was terribly turbulent. In August, Leo Messi’s departure from the club was officially announced. By the end of October, Ronald KoemanAfter Barça lost to Real Madrid at the Camp Nou and also lost to Rayo in Vallecas, he was finally sacked and Sergi Barjouan He temporarily took over the reins of the team. Xavi was everyone’s favorite to become the new coach. With the exception of Laporta, relations with whom had cooled in the previous months. Contact was, however, resumed, also thanks to the intervention of Echeverría, and on November 6, 2021, the coach from Terrassa was finally officially announced as the new coach. On Saturday, 812 days later, he set the expiration date of his position: leaving Laporta, who is also surrounded by rumors about the state of his health, in the very uncomfortable position of being the only parapet of a club mired in a deep crisis at all levels. Accused by critics of surrounding himself with friends who disagree with him and do not correct his mistakes, the president has just lost the last network that stabilized him.