Sala: "Rosell was always on the wrong side"

Barcelona director and treasurer Xavier Sala i Martín gave two weeks ago an interview to Spanish newspaper El País.


Will you head the list or just be a member of the continuity candidacy?
I don't like the word continuity since Laporta doesn't continue, I would see it more as the continuation of a project that has led to the best results in the history of Barça. Alfons Godall and I have been working on a bid of which I will be part. The role of the individuals hasn't yet been decided. But the club members who like what has been done, will be able to vote for this to continue.

Didn't the spying on the four vice-presidents lead to a very serious crisis within the board?
When I became part of the board [in april 2009], the audit had already taken place. I was told how it happened and that the people who were annoyed had accepted the explanations that were given. And life went on until October, when the press talked about some unrest. Hearing all that, the president asked at a board meeting if the discomfort the press was talking about was real. Nobody said anything, so the matter was settled then.

Godall was the only vice-president that wasn't investigated and you are supposed to be Laporta's favourite in the continuity candidacy. You and chief executive Joan Oliver, as well as Vicent Sanchís, head of Barça TV, are linked because you all belong to the Catalunya Oberta Foundation ["open catalonia foundation", a catalan nationalist and liberal think thank]. You are a machine that produces ideas the president likes and other directors aren't happy with this.
Do you really think that Oliver, Sanchis and I can manipulate Laporta when he decides on his successor? You think that we are going to ask him to give up his friend Godall, the directors who supported him at the time of the vote of no confidence, people he trusts, so that he can appoint me? Please! All the board crises have had one common theme, namely that Laporta does what he wants and that who goes against him eventually cedes or loses. No matter how often they say that the foundation is an evil institution capable of anything, there is one thing that it's not able to do: to brainwash Laporta.

Most of your opponents say the members don't like you.
I would like them to show their polls. To win you must not only look at the rejection you cause. Elections are won by filling your supports with enthusiasm. Very often the one who loses an election didn't make his natural voters thrill.

That's why Laporta seems to prefer you over Godall, someone with a less volcanic profile.
Godall would be an extraordinary candidate. Every time a decision has been made, he was always on the right side: when Txiki was signed, when Rijkaard was maintained, when Eto'o was signed, when Ronaldinho was allowed to leave, when Pep was signed. It is interesting to see that Rosell was on the wrong side when all these major decisions were made, he couldn't stand Txiki, he wanted Scolari, he did not want to sign Eto'o to avoid irritating Florentino Pérez and opted for Adriano, as if the president of Barça has to give in to his counterpart in Madrid.

What do you think about Laporta?
It's the best president in the history of FC Barcelona. An indicator of how well he has done is the deep hatred shown by his opponents, who use the media to discredit him. But despite these campaigns, people like Laporta. And not only the people in the street, but also the ones who have power in the world of sports. One detail: before the arrival of Laporta, all Spanish and European sports bodies were dominated by Madrid. I won't say that they are now dominated by Barça, but they are no longer dominated by Madrid. And that is thanks to Laporta.

Just like Agustí Montal [barcelona president from 1969 to 1977], Laporta has said before: "We're not into politics, we're into our country." Don't you think that he's today doing politics with his statements and gestures?
Tell me which party Laporta has supported? None! This is about supporting Catalania and not about party politics. Montal is right: he hasn't done politics. And if defending your country is doing politics, then both those who speak and those who keep quiet are doing politics.

Read more:
Laporta: "I believe in Sala i Martin"
Poll result: Who should be the board candidate?
Sala still didn't exclude being a candidate

interview: ramón besa

Benedito: "We want a new Barça culture"

Barcelona presidential candidate Agustí Benedito gave an interview to Spanish newspaper El País. Read the previous part of this interview here.


Are you in favour of introducing an ethical code?
I am in favour of it, at least in case it's not being used to gain election profit, like could happen with the new initiative that is supported by Rosell. In general, I think it's an interesting and good idea.

Which is the difference between the project that will be supported by Laporta and the one lead by Rosell?
Laporta has had seven years to do what he wanted to do, so it would be hard to understand he would now start doing things he hasn't done before. Rosell, on the other hand, still hasn't explained his program. In any case, I know him and some of the members of his theoretical candidacy and as far as I see it, his program also won't be similar to what we will present.

Who's in your team?
Members of an independent, different candidacy that is the result of hard work. We want to stimulate the participation of the club members in the life of the club. There are a lot of people involved, people with great human and professional qualities, big Barcelona fans.

The elections will apparently focus more on the club than on the team, especially because the squad of Pep Guardiola has done amazingly well. It's difficult to imagine that a big name like David Beckham would have the same impact as in 2003.
It seems that the sporting issues won't be the centre of the campaign, although I'm not sure about that. In any case, I think that everyone will agree that Guardiola has done an excellent job and that we all will want him to continue for many more years. We sure will run a campaign that will be direct, different, clear, always keeping in mind that the owners of the club are the members.

You won't close a deal with others?
A deal with other candidacies is not part of our model. It wouldn't make sense. We will try to transform the club in a way that, at this moment, I don't see in the other alternatives. Certainly not in the continuity list and the one of Rosell. I don't know what will happen with others who might take part.

You didn't offer yourself to Rosell?
Since I resigned in February until I took the decision to run in July, I have been in contact with a lot of people, with people who now could be part of the candidacy of Rosell, with directors who continue, with former directors who, apparently, won't take part in the elections. I was interested in knowing their plans, the projects that were being formed and that's when I got the certainty that none of those is similar to ours.

With some seven months to go before the elections, how are the club members doing in your opinion?
There is a crisis of behaviour, of responsibilities and of participation in the club. The board of Laporta has done good things, some bad ones and others haven't been done at all. And despite the excellent results of the team, there's still a feeling of disaffection, of distance, of not fully living the experience of being club member of Barça.

We want to end the passivity and strengthen a new Barça culture, a new way to live things. I want to change the experience of being a member. We'll make an honest Barça, more participatory, we'll use the instruments needed for a good governance and we'll raise the standards for those who represent the members. The essence and the rarity of our club is that we can choose our directors.

Will you get there with a budget of 500.000 euros?
We have a maximum budget of 500.000 euros and we'll get to the end of the campaign with those 500.000 euros.

this was the second and last part of this interview. you can read the first part here.


Read more:
Introducing Benedito (5-parts series)
Poll result: Can Benedito win the elections?
Barça, a 'wonderful rarity' (by Agustí Benedito)

interview: ramón besa

Benedito: "It won't be a matter of two candidates"

Barcelona presidential candidate Agustí Benedito gave an interview to Spanish newspaper El País.


What could your role be in the expected battle between the continuity candidate and Rosell?
Those who think that the elections are a matter of two are mistaken. Some will vote for Rosell, others for Laporta, but the majority will not vote for one of them, but for other candidates, or will not vote at all.

One must keep in mind that Barça has 183.000 club members, 100.000 of those have joined in the last five years and 70.000 since 2005. We expect that there will be more voters than ever: some 70.000 to 80.000 members on an electoral role of 135.000 and 40.000 members will vote for the first time in their life. Most of these circumstances are in our favour.

All candidates so far have supported or were part of the board of Laporta. What will happen with the project of 2003 that was voted for by an absolute majority and has caused many divisions along the road?
The project of 2003 has its origins in the choice for a model change in 1997. I supported the project with which Laporta became president. And I think that, with some additions and updating, it is still perfectly valid for Barca.

What happened is that the president left the road, he went away from it, and, therefore, it should not be surprising that the people who worked on and believed in the project of 2003 have now the will to take it up and to continue it. Many points of the program have not been executed because the president didn't want to.

You resigned after it became known that Laporta's law firm had intervened in the possible sale of Mallorca. Was that the biggest betrayal of the project?
From the president of Barça we can demand an ethical behaviour, and in this case he didn't even respect the desirable minimum. What is serious in the case of Uzbekistan is that the buyers of Mallorca were professionally linked - there were commercial agreements - with the club and therefore Laporta did at the same time business with those people as president and as lawyer.

Until that moment, there were rumours and reports, but nothing had been confirmed. Laporta told TV3 [Catalan television channel] during the built-up to the vote of no confidence that he had no business links with the world of football but contrary to that, he was trying for a friendly football team friend, Bunyodkor, to buy another football team that was in trouble...

It was clear he had been lying. And I might not have the power to make the president resign, but I do have the freedom to leave myself. We can analyze the management of a club in different ways, and the final outcome of Laporta's mandate is positive, but when we talk about ethics or moral behaviour there is no room for doubt either.

Was the candidate Laporta different from the president Laporta?
In the seven years prior to his presidency, some of the key principles of our project were increasing the transparency, communicating more with club members and letting them more take part in the decisions.

And regarding the honesty and the participation of the members, the results haven't been satisfactory. The results of the football team couldn't have been better, but in other aspects he has clearly failed.

Winning trophies is a very important objective, but not the reason for being of the club, which are the members. The objective of the football team shouldn't be confused with the essence of FC Barcelona. The key moment, the event that distinguishes us from the others, are the elections.

It sometimes seems that the valuation of the management is no longer based on a job done well or poor, but based on what is ethical or illegal, as if everything that is not illegal is correct.
Yes. I lived the vote of no confidence in 1998 against a president [Josep Lluís Núñez] whose mandate wasn't limited, and I remember the aggressiveness with which he defended himself and which made him call the people who promoted the vote "anti-barcelonistas".

And now I have the feeling that those who criticize or disagree with the management of the board are not just accused of being "anti-barcelonistas" but also of being anti-catalan. Laporta has politicized the club and he has on the other hand lost control of some things.

In my opinion, the parameters for evaluating the ethics and morals of a president of Barça are at this moment unacceptable or are at least not in accordance with the history and the characteristics of the club.

this was the first part of this interview. you can read the second and last part here.


Read more:
Introducing Benedito (five-parts series)
Poll result: Can Benedito win the elections?
Barça, a 'wonderful rarity' (by Agustí Benedito)

Candidates compete for future board members

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Barcelona director Xavier Sala i Martín recently offered a club member to be part of his candidacy without knowing the person in question already joined the project of former Barcelona sports vice-president Sandro Rosell.

The "elder new technologies entrepreneur with a captivating profile", as the aforementioned person is described by the paper, felt in a way flattered by the proposal made by Sala i Martín but nevertheless kindly rejected the offer.

This story would be one more concrete example of how presidential candidates are competing to add valuable people to their team. Spanish television channel Intereconomía TV for example reported that several candidates sounded out Jordi Cardoner Casaus (picture, on the left), the grandson of former Barcelona vice-president Nicolau Casaus. Cardoner would in the end have chosen to join Rosell (read more here).

And while former Barcelona vice-president Gabriel Masfurroll would according to almost all media also join Rosell, Barcelona opposition site Pelikano claims that Masfurroll is still considering his participation in the elections but would certainly not be part of Rosell's candidacy (read more here).

With the possibility of two candidacies coming from the current board, one lead by Barcelona first vice-president Alfons Godall (and/or Sala i Martín), and the other by Barcelona marketing vice-president Jaume Ferrer (read more here), there would also be an internal battle ongoing within the board to attract the most board members.

All media have in the past weeks drawn up their own lists, that all have their small differences but all agree that there are still a few directors left who are in doubt. Spanish newspaper El País claims that up to five board members still didn't make a decision on who they would support: Josep Cubells, Magda Oranich, Joan Boix, Maria Elena Fort and Patrick Auset

Read more:
The Rosell Project - Part 4: The Board (2)
Son of former president denies election involvement

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