Rosell organizing press dinners

After he held the first meetings with representatives of Barcelona's fan clubs in the beginning of October (read more here), Barcelona presidential candidate Sandro Rosell has in the past weeks been meeting with media representatives.

Journalist Alex Santos confirms on his blog that he and his colleagues of Spanish news agency EFE were a couple of weeks ago invited to meet with Rosell at his home. Santos explains that the gathering was more about getting to know each other and that Rosell didn't talk a lot about his program or his team.

Some of the closest collaborators of the former sports vice-president reportedly assisted the meeting, among which former Barcelona board member Josep Maria Bartomeu (read more here) and former Barcelona head of external relations Laura Alsina, who will act as press officer of Rosell's campaign.

It was also confirmed to this blog that Rosell and Bartomeu met last Monday in Rosell's offices with journalists of Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo, among which Cristina Cubero, one of the main writers of the paper. A few days before, Rosell would have had a dinner with journalists of Catalan newspaper El Periódico at the Via Veneto restaurant in Barcelona.

Meetings between people involved in the elections and the press seem to be a usual practice in Barcelona. Catalan sports paper Sport claimed last summer that Barcelona president Joan Laporta was having weekly dinners with journalists in the Da Greco and Raco d'en Cesc restaurants in Barcelona, while Alex Santos reports that presidential candidate Agustí Benedito is also having contacts with journalists.

Read more:
Rosell working on ethical code
The Rosell Project - Part 1: The Club