BARÇA Blaugranes Updates

🎙️Bartomeu on Messi’s departure.

🗣️: “That (the financial situation) led to many decisions, but for me the saddest one was the departure of Leo Messi. It was very sad to say goodbye to the best player in history, who still had a lot of football left in him and who could have coincided with this new generation of successful La Masia players.”

🎙️Victor Font as he draws on the topics of Joan Laporta & Josep Maria Bartomeu.

🗣️: “I’m not aligned with either side. What motivates me is working for a Barcelona that does not belong to a specific group, but to everyone.

In my opinion, the worst president in the modern history of Barcelona over the last 50 years has been Joan Laporta in recent years.”

🎙️Victor Font responding to Josep Maria Bartomeu’s comments where he indicated regarding a generational change.

🗣️: “It neither harms nor benefits me. All club members have the right to vote. I’m sure there are clearly identified ‘Laportistas’ who will also vote for us, just as there are others, like Joan Gaspart, who will vote for Joan Laporta.

We are happy that he, who has been one of the biggest examples of how the club should not be managed, sees things this way. I hope there will be a majority that votes in favor of professionalization and modernization. That is what will make us unstoppable.”

The appeal filed by Marc Ciria to the Catalan Football Federation, regarding his failure to meet the required signature threshold, has been REJECTED — confirming his exit from the race for the presidency of Barcelona. The election will now be a head-to-head between Joan Laporta and Victor Font. []

In the 2019-20 season, the first during the pandemic, losses of €128 million were declared.

🗣️ Bartomeu: “Yes, mainly because of lost income. We expected to surpass €1 billion in revenue, but ended up earning €200 million less. However, we managed to get all players, not only from the first football team but from all professional teams, to reduce their salaries by 12%.”

But in 2020-21, the first season closed by Laporta’s board, losses of €555 million were declared, whereas you had defended that the losses were only €225 million...

🗣️Bartomeu: “In 2021 the incoming board provisioned losses due to depreciation of players and possible legal disputes worth €283 million, but those are not the real losses of the club. Those losses later affect financial fair play, a problem we still carry today.”

Meanwhile Real Madrid took advantage of the pandemic to renovate their stadium. Why didn’t you start the Camp Nou renovation earlier?

🗣️ Bartomeu: “That’s a question for the Barcelona City Council.

In April 2014, the members approved the Espai Barça project in a referendum, which included not only the stadium renovation but also an urban redevelopment plan we had been working on with the city government.

The plan was that we would obtain the first permits within a year. But in May 2014, a different political group won the city election, and Mayor Ada Colau and her urban planning team required us to restart the whole process.

That work ended in a city agreement in 2019, which was later challenged legally. When everything was finally resolved, the pandemic arrived.”

🎙️Bartomeu on his tenure as President & on the fact that his reference is always drawn till date while expressing the financial crisis of Barça.

🗣️: “I’ve heard about “Bartomeu’s legacy” constantly over the last few years, not only during election campaigns. And it’s tiring to see it always used as an excuse, because they’ve had five and a half years to solve the problems caused by COVID and it seems they haven’t fully solved them.

The legacy was bad, I admit it, but it was caused by the pandemic. When I became president, the balance of my first five years was a cumulative profit of €109 million and 13 titles.

With the pandemic, the stadium was closed: no ticket sales, no season tickets, the store closed, the museum closed, and football schools closed. That drop in income obviously created cash-flow problems which were solved through borrowing. That happened to the vast majority of clubs in Europe.”

🎙️Josep Maria Bartomeu on whether he’ll vote, on Sunday & how as per him a generational change is the best outcome.

🗣️: “Yes, I will vote. And I think Barça should consider a generational change.

Our 2003 generation, the one of the “virtuous circle” and the famous PowerPoint, has been the most successful in the club’s history, but one day it has to end.”

🎙️Bartomeu on how he believes Barça should turn a page, regarding its administrational chapter.

🗣️: “During the Laporta-Rosell-Bartomeu era, Barça fans have enjoyed enormous success, many titles, and great football. But over these 23 years many things have happened: conflicts, legal issues, and public criticism among ourselves.

Sometimes it is necessary to clean house, open the windows, and allow new generations with new ideas to take over.”

🎙️Bartomeu, as he reflects on Laporta’s second presidencial tenure.

🗣️: “We have had Laporta as president for five and a half years, and the financial situation is still not fully restored. This last mandate has had some gaps, strange things have happened, and many lies have been told to the members and that is not good for the club’s health.

There is still a lot of work to do, and I believe we must allow a younger generation, as prepared as we once were, to move Barça forward.”

🎙️Bartomeu on the election campaigns of Laporta and Font, as he points out the fallacies of Laporta’s campaign as per him.

🗣️: “Yes, and I see that people are not talking much about projects. There are many accusations between each other.

I would like to see a campaign like 2015, when projects were debated. All candidates had well-prepared programs, Benedito, Freixa… well, Laporta didn’t. The Laporta of 2015, who lost the election against me, didn’t have a program, just like now. He works mainly by intuition. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

Laporta insists his board saved the club from ruin and that your management was negligent even before COVID.

🗣️ Bartomeu: “At the beginning of 2021, the magazine Forbes said Barça was the most valuable club in the world, using 2020 data, the same year of the pandemic for which Laporta criticizes my supposed disastrous legacy.

For the first time in history, Forbes ranked Barça No.1, ahead of Manchester United, Real Madrid and Bayern. I don’t think our work was so bad if we received that recognition, which the club no longer has today.”

𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: Barcelona have officially received the 1C license to open the Gol Nord stand. The capacity of the Spotify Camp Nou can now reach 62,000 spectators against Sevilla this Sunday and in future games.

Lamine Yamal's goal last night was his first against a Premier League team, and the first in England.