Barcagate (10) - The fallout

When one will look back in one year from now at Barcelona's presidential elections that will have been held earlier that year, it seems very likely that the decision of Barcelona chief executive Joan Oliver in March 2009 to order a detective agency to carry out an investigation regarding four Barcelona vice-presidents will be seen as a (and maybe as the) key moment.

When the discovery of the investigations by the four vice-presidents already made the choice of one continuity candidate very difficult, the public revealing of the affair now seems to have made it impossible that the current board will present one candidacy to the voters.

All media agree at this moment that there will most probably be two board members who will run for president: while Barcelona first vice-president Alfons Godall (or board member Xavier Sala i Martín) will be backed by current Barcelona president Joan Laporta, Barcelona marketing vice-president Jaume Ferrer would also be preparing a candidcay.

As a consecuence of that, the possibility that current board members will link up with board members who left the board since Laporta became president in 2003 would also have increased.

The race seems more open than ever.

this is the tenth and last part on the case. you can read the whole series here.


Read the previous parts of this series:
Barçagate (1) - El Periodico breaks the news
Barçagate (2) - Emergency press conference
Barçagate (3) - New revelations in the press
Barcagate (4) - Laporta speaks about spying claims
Barcagate (5) - The vice-presidents talk (part 1)
Barcagate (6) - The vice-presidents talk (part 2)
Barcagate (7) - Content of audit reports made public
Barcagate (8) - The Ferrer report
Barcagate (9) - A crucial dinner


picture:
barcelona chief executive joan oliver leaving the press conference during which he gave his version of the facts few hours after catalan newspaper "el periódico" published the story about the investigations on thursday 24 september 2009.

Barcagate (9) - A crucial dinner

On Monday 21 September, Barcelona marketing vice-president Jaume Ferrer was the guest of honour of a so-called 'Pa i Tomàquet amb Tertúlia' session in a private apartment, owned by Catalan business man Josep Vilallonga, at the Passeig de Gràcia, the most prestigious avenue in Barcelona.

The 'Pa i Tomàquet' sessions are hosted by four prominent Catalan figures and are described as "a dinner-gathering, around a table, enjoying a 'pa amb tomàquet', in two services, and in good company with great wine. In those reunions we treat subjects of actuality and interest, with a Guest of Honour and [a number of] other persons, carefully selected. [The objective is to] meet and to debate about subjects of actuality and interest."

The sessions, that are organized since the year 2000, are named after the typical Catalan preparation 'pa amb tomàquet' (literally: 'bread with tomato'), that consists of bread - optionally toasted - with tomato rubbed over and seasoned with olive oil and salt.

At the 'Pa i Tomàquet' sessions, the guest of hounour can explicitly ask for confidentiality by using a sign that he has at his disposal and that has a phrase written on it that says "Que ningú no se'n recordi. I menys els periodistes"(Nobody shall remember this. And the journalists even less).

All attendants are informed at the start of the session that when this sign is shown, nobody will divulge nor publish whatever is said at that moment since it's considered to be said off-the-record. The same sign, framed into a design box, is also the gift that every guest of honour takes home as souvenir.


Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo reports that at one point during the session in which Ferrer took part, one of the journalists who were present asked the director if it was true that he had been investigated. After having raised the off-the-record sign, Ferrer confirmed this but played down the issue.

One of the people who attended the meeting was Rafael Nadal, director of Catalan newspaper El Periódico, that broke the news on the espionage affair a couple of days later, on Thursday 24 September. Nadal told El Mundo Deportivo that he didn't break the code of silence since the newspaper was already investigating the issue for two months.

A lot of people nevertheless think that the dinner was the key moment in the publication of the espionage story. The rumour was already running through Barcelona for a while, but this confirmation by Ferrer would have been the last piece of the puzzle.

The fact that it was El Periódico that revealed the investigations is seen by some as an attempt to hinder the political ambitions of Barcelona president Joan Laporta, also because Rafael Nadal, the director of El Periódico, is the brother of Joaquim Nadal, a minister in the Catalan government for the Socialists' Party of Catalonia.

this is the ninth of ten parts on the case. the next and last part will cover the fallout of the story. you can read the whole series here.


Read the previous parts of this series:
Barçagate (1) - El Periodico breaks the news
Barçagate (2) - Emergency press conference
Barçagate (3) - New revelations in the press
Barcagate (4) - Laporta speaks about spying claims
Barcagate (5) - The vice-presidents talk (part 1)
Barcagate (6) - The vice-presidents talk (part 2)
Barcagate (7) - Content of audit reports made public
Barcagate (8) - The Ferrer report


picture:
on the first picture, jaume ferrer is the second man from the right. rafael nadal, director of catalan newspaper "el periódico", is the second man on ferrer's right hand side. on ferrer's left hand side, there's santi nolla, director of catalan sports paper "el mundo deportivo". and right in front of nolla, you have joan vehils, director of catalan sports paper "sport".

Barcagate (8) - The Ferrer report

Catalan newspaper El Periódico last Friday made public the content of the security audits (produced by a detective agency) on Barcelona vice-presidents Joan Boix, Joan Franquesa, Rafael Yuste and Jaume Ferrer.

This would prove that the audits weren't ordered by the club to protect the four vice-presidents, but to spy on them ahead of next year's elections. The reports would namely contain not one reference to the protection or the safety of the directors.

Below you find a summary of the audit report regarding Barcelona marketing vice-president Jaume Ferrer.


In the report there's a reference to the director's friendship with Josep Pujol Ferrusola, the son of former Catalan president Jordi Pujol, which is considered to be enough proof to state that Ferrer "has political and business ties" with the Pujol family. The report also points out that the vice-president had to start from scratch but that he now has "a considerable personal estate".

It is mentioned that Ferrer "is sued for criminal conversion and corporate offense in a case in which his former father-in-law - and owner of the company involved - accuses him of unfair competition by taking away clients and know how". The detective agency warns that the oral hearings didn't yet take place and that they are expected in the coming months, which could draw the attention of the press.

The report contains an extensive interview - Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia claims that it's three pages long - with the ex-father-in-law, who talked with people from the agency and told them he might inform Sandro Rosell and Ferran Soriano, two other presidential candidates, about the case.

The paper reports that Ferrer now claims that the dispute has in the meantime already been solved. Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo, that reports that the conclusions of the Ferrer report counts only 15 lines, claims that the case has already been filed by a judge and that an appeal is now still hanging at the Supreme Court, that would be handling the last formalities before filing the case definitely because it's not based on real events.

this is the eigth of ten parts on the case. the next part will cover the key moment in the revealing of the story. you can read the whole series here.


Read the previous parts of this series:
Barçagate (1) - El Periodico breaks the news
Barçagate (2) - Emergency press conference
Barçagate (3) - New revelations in the press
Barcagate (4) - Laporta speaks about spying claims
Barcagate (5) - The vice-presidents talk (part 1)
Barcagate (6) - The vice-presidents talk (part 2)
Barcagate (7) - Content of audit reports made public

Barcagate (7) - Content of audit reports made public

For the second time in fifteen days, Catalan newspaper El Periódico had yesterday a cover story on the investigation of four Barcelona vice-presidents.

The newspaper had now access to the audit reports and claims that it is clear that those weren't ordered to protect the four vice-presidents (Joan Boix, Joan Franquesa, Rafael Yuste and Jaume Ferrer) but to spy on them. The reports would contain not one reference to the protection or the safety of the directors.

Not even in the audit of vice-president Franquesa, who in the version of Barcelona chief exectutive Joan Oliver instigated the investigations when he informed the club that he thought he was being investigated and followed, there's no mentioning of a possible following of the director.

The reports mainly refer to financial situation of the four vice-presidents, both profesional as private, as well as to their legal proceedings (read more on the content of the audit reports here). The focus is on issues that could be used against the board members if they would decide to run for Barcelona president next year.

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo, that had access to the four reports as well, claims that they are full of mistakes and even lies and not worth the 56 000 euros paid for them.

Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia also treated the issue on Friday, saying that they had access to some of the reports and that it's clear that the security audit was in a fact a vulnerability check.

Each report would count between 35 and 40 pages - plus attachments with copies of public records - and deals with the following issues: the business and political relations of the four vice-presidents, their personal assets, their yearly income, their professional career, their criminal record, their debts, the companies they (partly) own, some press reports, as well as reports of interviews with people from their entourage.

Asked about the new revelations, Barcelona presidents Joan Laporta spoke to journalists at the airport of Barcelona upon arrival from a visit to Latin America last night and repeated, without going into specific details, that the reports were an attempt to destabilize the club:

"They are after us and they don't stop trying to destabilize us. I've already said that they'd better leave us alone but Barça is going through one of their best moments and some are determined to go down this road because they cannot stand that the club is lead by people who have a certain way of thinking (note: Laporta refers to his stands on the independency of Catalonia).

It's clear that they are insisting. Now it's this issue, then it's another one. But both myself and the team will keep on working so they won't succeed. For us, the espionage issue has already been closed five months ago.

I also want to make clear that the board is not divided in two groups. There's a diversity of opinions and we now need to put them together. Of course we're not all thinking the same. That's a good thing because it shows that it's a dynamic board. We respect everyone's opinion and the personal relations are good.

I have always acted in this kind of situations and when there's some crisis situation, I have taken decisions in the benefit of the club. I believe that this time we can find a consensus and that we don't have to take another type of decisions."

this is the seventh of ten parts on the case. the next part will cover the audit report on barcelona vice-president jaume ferrer. you can read the whole series here.


Read the previous parts of this series:
Barçagate (1) - El Periodico breaks the news
Barçagate (2) - Emergency press conference
Barçagate (3) - New revelations in the press
Barcagate (4) - Laporta speaks about spying claims
Barcagate (5) - The vice-presidents talk (part 1)
Barcagate (6) - The vice-presidents talk (part 2)

Barcagate (6) - The vice-presidents talk (part 2)

On Monday 28 September, four days after the publication of a newspaper report that Barcelona has been spying on four vice-presidents, Barcelona vice-president Joan Boix was the third director involved - after his colleagues Rafael Yuste and Jaume Ferrer - who talked in public when he gave an interview to Catalan radio station COM Ràdio:

"It's true that when it happened, I felt bad and I was very angry. I had a hard discussion, more than just hard in fact, with the general director, Joan Oliver. He gave his explanations, we exchanged everything we were thinking and I ended up being convinced by what he said.

For me, the issue was closed after that and completely forgotten. We made an effort to resolve the issue back then and now that this has been made public and the wound has again been opened, this hurts again. I was annoyed when it was published because it made me re-live the bad moments I lived in the month of April. The impact of the report has been exaggerated and the story isn't important enough to put it on the cover.

I never considered resigning. I think the board of directors as a whole acted like they should, in a clear and consistent way. It's a historical precedent for this club as the common sense and the stability of the club prevailed. It was hard, very hard, but we took the right measures without anyone resigning.

We were able to deal with it internally, between us, and time has proven us right. You cannot imagine what could have happened if we would have destabilized the club at that moment by changing the structure.

I don't think that I or any of my family members or friends have been followed. The security audit is basically a study of one's personality and how one is seen by the people around him. It won't come out since I have it now. I don't know if a third person has a copy though. I didn't change any of my habits because of what happened. I don't have any reason to change because I lead a consistent life.

As for my role in the next elections, I can only say that this will depend highly on the person who will be our presidential candidate. I also think that the person who will head that candidacy should have the absolute freedom to surround him with the people he wants to have near."

On Friday 2 October, Barcelona vice-president Joan Franquesa was the last person involved to share his views about the issue when he gave an interview to Catalan local news site cugat.cat:

"Nobody likes to be investigated nor to be the target of that kind of audit. So it's not a pleasant thing to talk about this and I think that the best way to solve this is internally and not through the press. The more discreet we act, the better. Otherwise you might create a bad atmosphere among the fans and the entourage of the club.

I'm annoyed because of having been the target of a security audit. Both personally and because of the image of the club. Seen from the outside, it's a very serious issue but seen from the inside, you can understand a lot of things. In the end it's just an anecdote and this shouldn't overshadow the good performances of this board.

Barça is lead in a good way and is a reference in every aspect: sporting, social, economic. It's clear that because of some internal actions, third parties who want to be part of the club - and they have this right - are now taking advantage of this because the elections are coming up.

I think that my image has also been damaged because I've been linked to a case of espionage. I nevertheless don't exclude to take part in the elections, although I'm aware of my limitations and I don't know what my role could be. You cannot make plans because it's impossible to know what will happen in the coming months.

There are a lot of possibilities. Being president or board member, everything is open and it's also up to others to make a decision on that. If I can help to keep on defending the project that revolutionized the club somehow in 2003, I will be available to add what I can."

this is the sixth of ten parts on the case. the next part will cover the latest revelations on the content of the audit reports. you can read the whole series here.


Read the previous parts of this series:
Barçagate (1) - El Periodico breaks the news
Barçagate (2) - Emergency press conference
Barçagate (3) - New revelations in the press
Barcagate (4) - Laporta speaks about spying claims
Barcagate (5) - The vice-presidents talk (part 1)


picture:
Barcelona vice-president Joan Franquesa -right- and Barcelona president Joan Laporta -left- on Thursday 24 September, the day Catalan newspaper El Periódico brought the story on the investigations

Barcagate (5) - The vice-presidents talk

On Sunday 27 September, three days after the publication of a newspaper report that Barcelona has been spying on four vice-presidents, Barcelona vice-president Rafael Yuste was the first director involved to comment on the story in interviews with Catalan radio stations COM Ràdio and Catalunya Ràdio:

"I was surprised when I got to know what had happened and we went to see the chief executive. When Oliver explained me the situation at the time, I understood his arguments -which I won't explain here- they were reliable and I accepted them.

Joan Oliver joined the club one year ago at a difficult moment and I strongly believe that he's doing a very good job at a very complicated club and that he's working very hard to help making Barça a reference in the world. As vice-president, I'm very happy to have him with us.

Let's not use the word 'spying'. For me this wasn't an investigation but a security audit. It's a normal thing in the business world and it has been taken out of context. I don't want any controversy. I never felt that my privacy was violated and I didn't think about resigning for one moment.

I also absolutely believe Joan Laporta when he says he didn't know anything. I know him for many years and it's the truth. The board of directors is united and the fans should not be worried. I don't know if there are third parties behind the publication of the story, as the president says. I'm just surprised by the way the media are covering this now because it's an issue that has already been closed in the month of April, five months ago.

I'm now focusing on the day to day activities of the club. When the election campaign begins, we'll see what will happen or what my role can be. Now everyone has to support the club."

Around that same time, Barcelona vice-president Jaume Ferrer spoke at a press conference and gave his version of what has had happened:

"It feels like I'm forced to re-read a book that I had already finished and locked up in a cabinet. I already forgot about it, I don't want to re-live it and I don't want to give too much importance to it. When we found out about it, the issue was treated forcefully. What this means? Everybody can give the interpretiation he wants.

We were given the appropriate explanations and we decided to close the issue in April. Looking back now, I think we made the right decision. Everything turned out well. The issue was resolved internally back then and we are not planning any crisis meeting now.

Of course nobody likes to be investigated, but I've forgotten about it. Did I feel protected and helped by the club like the chief executive explained? I won't answer that, I just insist that it's an internal issue that has been filed. I didn't think about resigning because -like I said- things were treated forcefully.

I don't know if the president knew about it. If he says he didn't, he didn't. I can only say that I personally closed this case in April. I don't know if there's someone behind this like the president said. One should be in his place to know that. If he says so, he should know it.

The elections of 2010 are still a long way off. We are now taking care of leading this club, we have big challenges coming up, like the Liga, the Chammpions League and the World Cup for clubs, a trophy the club didn't win yet."

this is the fifth of ten parts on the case. the next part will cover the reactions of the other two vice-presidents involved. you can read the whole series here.


Read the previous parts of this series:
Barçagate (1) - El Periodico breaks the news
Barçagate (2) - Emergency press conference
Barçagate (3) - New revelations in the press
Barcagate (4) - Laporta speaks about spying claims


picture:
Barcelona sports vice-president Rafael Yuste -left- and Barcelona president Joan Laporta -right- on Thursday 24 September, the day Catalan newspaper El Periódico brought the story on the investigations

Barcagate (4) - Laporta speaks about spying claims

More than two days after the publication of a report that Barcelona has been spying on four vice-presidents, Barcelona president Joan Laporta commented on the case on Saturday 26 September in the afternoon in Malaga, where Barcelona would play the fifth game of the Liga later that day:

"This happened in April, five months ago, and when I was informed, explanations were given and those were understood and accepted. The security audits were legal and were carried out to protect the people involved as well as the club.

There were certain suspicions that someone had tried to obtain personal information about the vice-presidents and we acted. We've turned the page and the chapter is closed.

People are exaggerating. It's obvious that some want me to sack certain people but they won't succeed. I won't give in to this blackmail. I want to make very clear that Joan Oliver is an intelligent man with a great work-rate, who is courageous and very competent.

He's one of the best general directors in the history of the club and one of the main architects of the good times this club is going through. I don't have any intention to let him go. I want him by my side. I fully trust him and this Barça needs him.

I didn't know about these audits. That decision was made by the chief executive and the head of security because it is within their authority. When they received the results, Oliver told me about it and I thought we had to inform the vice-presidents about this. The results were understood and accepted.

Now why does this reappear after five months? This is an election year and there are people who want to heat things up. And as we are now living the best moment in the history of the club, they don't have arguments for their own project and they just try to destabilize us.

And above that, they especially want to get me, because I have a certain way of thinking and I talk clear. There are intolerant people who don't accept this."

When opening the academic year of the School of Journalism at the Ramón Llull university in Barcelona on Wednesday 30 September, Laporta spoke a second time about the matter, basically repeating the same.

this is the fourth of six parts on the case. the next part will cover the reactions of the vice-presidents involved. you can read the whole series here.


Read the previous part of this series:
Barçagate (1) - El Periodico breaks the news
Barçagate (2) - Emergency press conference
Barçagate (3) - New revelations in the press


picture:
Barcelona president Joan Laporta -left- and Barcelona chief executive Joan Oliver -right- during Barcelona's Champions League game against Dynamo Kiev on Tuesday 29 september 2009

Barçagate (3) - New revelations in the press

In the hours and days after the publication by Catalan sports paper El Periódico of the report saying that Barcelona had been spying on four vice-presidents and the following press conference by Barcelona chief executive Joan Oliver explaining the version of the club, several media revealed new -and sometimes contradicting- details about what happened in March and April of this year.


1. What was in the security audit report?

Catalan newspaper El Periódico suggests they had access to the reports by describing that every page of the reports wears the logo of detective agency Método 3 and that they have an annex with copies of official documents.

The audits would have been ordered by Oliver, although it was a member of the club's security department who contacted the agency. The reports were ready after three weeks. To draw up the reports, people of the entourage of the four directors were discretely interviewed and official documents were looked at. The targets were not followed or spied upon.

The agency reportedly found flaws and a few irregularities regarding all vice-presidents, although all of these would be of minor importance. The audit has information on the business and economical activities of the investigated persons, their properties and their legal and tax situation. There is no reference to the fact that one of them could be being investigated by third persons.

There would be no references to the personal lives of the vice-presidents, except one mentioning of a legal dispute one of the four has with his former mother-in-law regarding the ownership of a company. Spanish sports paper As nevertheless claims that the reports include some very intimate details about the private lives of the directors.

Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia claims that vice-president Joan Franquesa was totally cleared by the background check. Although the other three vice-presidents (Joan Boix, Jaume Ferrer and Rafael Yuste) are convinced they are also clean, one of them would have some weak points.

2. What was the reason for the investigations, who found out and what happened when it was found out?

- Catalan radio station Catalunya Ràdio claims that it was Barcelona vice-president Joan Franquesa who asked the club to carry out a security audit to see if he would be able to run for president in 2010. Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo confirmed this version of the events. Madrid sports paper As claims that Franquesa contacted Barcelona head of security Xavier Martorell.

Barcelona chief executive Joan Oliver would then have decided on his own to also investigate the other three vice-presidents who could be a candidate in the elections.

During the investigations, Barcelona vice-president Jaume Ferrer reportedly found out something was going on and asked Barcelona president Joan Laporta for an explication. During a tense meeting, during which both men unconfirmedly would even have gotten physical, it was agreed that the vice-presidents would from now on be better informed about the club's activities.

- Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia on the other hand reports that the investigations were discovered when vice-president Franquesa saw a newspaper report about his person and was advised by his lawyer to investigate this. Two weeks later, his lawyer reportedly told him: "It's Barça who is investigating you."

Franquesa contacted Martorell, who confirmed him that Oliver had ordered the investigation. The matter was discussed at a board meeting, during which several board members asked for the dismissal of Oliver. Others directors wanted to resign themselves and put the case in the hands of the police.

- Catalan radio station RAC 1 reports that Ferrer was close to attacking Oliver during a meeting which also involved the three other vice-presidents.

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo says that Martorell offered to resign, which in the end didn't happen. The security audits also wouldn't have been handed immediately to the four people concerned, but only after those explicitly demanded this when they found out about the investigations.

Catalan sports paper Sport claims that one of the vice-presidents considered to step down. El Mundo Deportivo says that this was Franquesa, who still would be considering to leave before the end of this board's term next year.

In the end the case was settled, in the benefit of the club. Madrid sports paper As claims that at least one of the vice-presidents is nonetheless still convinced that Laporta knew about the investigations beforehand.

Barcelona opposition news site Pelikano claims, based upon sources close to the board, that Laporta set up the whole operation, trying to torpedo a possible candidacy of Ferrer, who is not the favourite of the president to succeed him but who has the support of the majority of the board members. Ferrer would therefore have been the main target of the investigations.

In the margin
Spanish newspaper El País reported that Barcelona chief executive Oliver and Barcelona board member Xavier Sala i Martín own a consultancy company together. As was already known before, both men are also members of Catalunya Oberta, a right-wing think-tank. Sala replied on Facebook that the company is in fact a charity organization, so that they cannot be seen as business partners.

this is the third of ten parts on the case. the next parts will cover the reactions of the president and the board members involved. you can read the whole series here.


Read the previous part of this series:
Barçagate (1) - El Periodico breaks the news
Barçagate (2) - Emergency press conference


picture:
Barcelona chief executive Joan Oliver -left- and Barcelona marketing vice-president Jaume Ferrer -right- talking on Thursday 24 September, the day Catalan newspaper El Periódico brought the story on the investigations

Barçagate (2) - Emergency press conference

Few hours after El Periódico brought the news that Barcelona had been spying on four of the club's vice-presidents (read more here), Barcelona called an emergency press conference at 12:15 pm that same Thursday 24 september.

While Barcelona president Joan Laporta was - in the company of three of the four vice-presidents involved (Ferrer, Yuste and Franquesa) - inaugurating a statue of former Barcelona player László Kubala, Barcelona chief executive Joan Oliver faced the press alone and gave his version of the events:

"I can confirm that we have carried out an investigation but I want to make clear that the report that was published today refers to spying, while we were in fact protecting and defending those people. When somebody is the target of a security audit and it's he who receives the result - which is what happened here - that's not espionage. You can call it whatever you want, just do not use the word 'spying'.

Of course we are not happy that this information has been published but we don't have any problems to give further explanations. Although we would prefer to be able to work with more discretion, we are aware that few things in this club are not publicly known.

Everything started in March of this year when vice-president Joan Franquesa informed the club that he thought he was being investigated and followed. The police was not informed because there were only indications and no real proof. He thought this had to do with his position as vice-president of the club and asked us to verify the situation and his security.

Taking into account previous events related to security issues at the club - the death threats to the president, the theft of his computer, the theft of a data base and other incidents that we will not reveal - we decided to act. We considered this to be a reasonable request and, as security is an important issue for the club, we also thought it made sense to extend this to other vice-presidents, namely misters Joan Boix, Jaume Ferrer and Rafael Yuste. That's when these security audits were commissioned.

I want to point out that this happened shortly after first vice-president Alfons Godall had announced that he had no intention of being a candidate in the next elections, so there you had a situation in which the other four vice-presidents came more into the limelight because people were starting to discuss which one of them could become the continuity candidate. So yes, there was an electoral element to it as they played a bigger role. In short, all of them gained some public notoriety and that made them vulnerable. I also want to mention that current director Xavier Sala i Martín was at that time not yet a member of the board.

The club then contacted Método 3, a firm with a good reputation with whom we normally work, to carry out the audits. As is usual in security matters, this all happened with discretion so things could be done efficiently. At the beginning of April, the results of the security audit were known and, after being shared with them, they are now in the possession of the four vice-presidents. I think the fact that nobody did anything after they were informed about the audits is sufficient proof that nothing irregular happened.

A security audit consists of verifying information about those people that is available in public records and places, as well as making inquiries about them regarding certain areas of relevance. What is also part of it is trying to find out whether this person is being subjected to illegal activities of others. This is for example a very common practice in the United States.

A security audit can also be defined by what it is not and it's important to make this clear. It is not and does not contain any type of following of people or any activity related to these people's communications, meaning for example that telephone conversations or e-mails are not checked.

The cost of this audit was 56 000 euros, which is a little more than 1% of the club's security budget, which is four million euros. I want to make clear here that there are two types of security the club is dealing with: we have the security of people and brands, and then there's the security of the facilities. It's a very complex situation that asks for a lot of efforts. I can on the other hand guarantee you that this club never has been investigating people, so it is excluded that we have been following former vice-president Sandro Rosell.

President Laporta was not behind all this. Like all the vice-presidents, he was informed about the results once we got them. He didn't know about it before because that's the way we work here. We are doing things and depending on the results, the president is informed. Every day thousands of decisions are being made and people are informed from the moment this is relevant for them. I don't know if this is good or bad but it's our policy. The president takes care of the strategic matters, not the day-to-day activities.

Six months have now passed since the events took place and I insist that this was a normal procedure within the club's security measures. I cannot confirm or deny that similar audits were carried out before but it was just another measure without any special importance. Another thing is that this security audit was undertaken with the most strict respect for the law. It's a standard measure and no rules have been violated.

I never thought about resigning. Not back then and not after things have become public now. I am here because of a decision of the board and I don't think people have lost their trust in me. This happened half a year ago and nobody asked me anything. But if they would now ask me to leave, I would go with the great satisfaction of having worked at this club."

this is the second of ten parts on the case. the third part will cover some further revelations. you can read the whole series here.

Read the first part of this series:
Barçagate (1) - El Periodico breaks the news

Barçagate (1) - El Periodico breaks the news

Under the front-page headline "Pre-Electoral Earthquake Inside The Barcelona Board: Barça Has Been Spying On Four Vice-Presidents", Catalan newspaper El Periódico brought on Thursday 24 September the story that Barcelona has been investigating four vice-presidents.

The paper claims that Catalan detective agency Método 3 has been gathering information on Barcelona vice-presidents Joan Boix (finances), Joan Franquesa (assets administration), Rafael Yuste (sports matters) and Jaume Ferrer (marketing and media) earlier this year.

The order for the investigations was reportedly given by Barcelona chief executive Joan Oliver. At the request of one of the four directors concerned, who wanted to have his background checked, Oliver would have asked the security services of the club to contact an agency that would make a report of four vice-presidents, three of them not being alerted about the investigation.

The detective agency carried out at the end of April of this year a so-called risk analysis, examining the professional and private lives of the targets to see if something could be used against one of them during the upcoming election campaign.

When one of the four vice-presidents who were spied upon found out what was going on, he reportedly informed his colleagues and they met with Barcelona president Joan Laporta to ask for further explanations. The president showed his surprise when confronted with the story and told the directors he didn't know about the investigations.

Laporta was able to convince the four board members that he was not aware of what had been going on and, although one of the four still wouldn't exclude to take legal actions after next year's elections, it was in the end agreed to silence the case in order to safeguard the stability of the club.

this is the first of ten parts on the case. the second part will cover the reaction of barcelona ceo joan oliver. you can read the whole series here.