The four key reasons that undermined the power of Josep Maria Bartomeu and led to his resignation at Barcelona

10/27/2020 7:12 PM

• Clarín.com

• sports

Updated 10/27/2020 7:12 PM

The phrase that will be written here will surely accompany several articles in different media around the world: the resignation of Josep Maria Bartomeu and the entire Board of Directors of Barcelona is something like

.

The decision of the president of the Catalan club was presumably due to a series of events that were eroding his figure throughout the more than 7 years during which he commanded the culé team.

Beyond the fact that the resignation arrives on October 27, against the background of a conflict to accept that the vote of the vote of no confidence against Bartomeu be carried out in the middle of the State of Alarm, in the

final

the fight with Lionel Messi must be marked as the ultimate breaking point.

There are reasons of various kinds to explain this earthquake.

At least four of them go.

The burofax 

Lionel Messi, in the interview with Goal after the burofax.

The letter document that Messi decided to send before the start of this season generated a

.

The Rosario, tired of the team's setbacks in the Champions League and bad managerial planning, chose not to fulfill his last year of contract and was considered free.

There was a legal dispute and the burofax was a necessary step.

But the issue was not so simple for Messi and he finally

.

"There has been

, they are juggling and covering holes as things go by,"

fired

on the Goal site, in the only interview he gave after the scandal.

Anyway, that burofax

the days that followed for Bartomeu.

The pressure from members and fans to resign grew ever greater.

And more: the presumed candidates for the elections, which were to be held in the middle of next year, also began to mobilize and drive the so-called motion of no confidence

.

Thus, just two months after the document letter,

Although in this long goodbye a Bartomeu bean can be added: he managed to prevent Messi from leaving Barcelona.

"The easiest thing was to leave after 2-8 in the Champions League. But from the next day we tried to make fundamental decisions to guarantee the club's sporting future in the midst of a world crisis. Someone had to defend Messi's continuity and the adequacy of wages, "explained the now former president.

Soccer debacle

Lionel Messi, after 2-8 against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.Photo EFE

Bartomeu assumed the presidency on January 23, 2014, following the resignation of

.

He inherited Gerardo Martino in the bank, of insignificant step in the culé cast.

His first big bet was Luis Enrique and the success was resounding: he got the

in 2015 (he won the Champions League, the League and the King's Cup).

That year it was a wonderful team, just a couple of steps below the one Pep Guardiola built, perhaps the best in history.

Bartomeu bet on the Uruguayan Luis Suárez and the Messi-Suárez-Neymar trident, the famous MSN, was created.

But the glory days began to end with the departure of Neymar to PSG, in August 2017.

Much less after the Brazilian confessed that he wanted to return to Catalonia, but that the president did not accept it.

The last sword that Messi felt on his back was the cold departure of Suárez.

Dembelé, Coutinho and Griezmann arrived to replace Neymar in different seasons and neither managed to make the Brazilian forget.

On those three players, Bartomeu

.

The resounding defeats against Rome, Liverpool and Bayern Munich in the last three Champions League still hurt in Catalonia.

Ernesto Valverde was the replacement for Luis Enrique and, despite the close relationship with Messi, he failed to catapult the team on the European level.

Quique Setién's experience lasted only a few months.

And the beginning of Ronald Koeman is not the best.

The sports directors (Zubizarreta, Fernández, Abidal and Planes) were also changed and

.

Economic crisis

The balance of the last year showed

, a product, among other issues, of the pandemic.

For that reason, the leaders proposed a deep

to the campus, the most expensive in the world.

Bartomeu was the one who signed the most important contract for Messi in his career: 100 million euros per year for 5 seasons.

Barçagate

The scandal was unleashed in February this year, when the hiring of six companies to monitor social networks and the creation of accounts on Twitter and Facebook was revealed in which opponents and even footballers of the entity itself were criticized.

The issue, which is still being investigated, led to the resignation of six executives, including Emili Rousaud, vice of the club and potential candidate to succeed Josep Bartomeu in the presidency

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Earthquake in Lionel Messi's Barcelona: President Josep Maria Bartomeu resigns