The spell of Laporta in Barcelona

Soccer attends Joan Laporta's exhibitionism with astonishment.

It is not easy to understand the challenge of the president of Barcelona when the context invites modesty and penance for the waste before and after the pandemic at the Camp Nou.

The question is how it is explained that a bankrupt club is also one of those that has spent the most money so far on transfers: 153 million fixed for 186 from Chelsea, according to the specialized website Transfermarkt.

As soon as he became president, Laporta requested a credit of 125 million to fill the gap in the box.

A few months later, he knocked on the door of Goldman Sachs -the same financial company that will contribute some 1,500 million for the new Camp Nou- to request 595 million.

And, although today the debt amounts to about 1,300 million, the losses of the last year were around 470 million, the wage bill has risen again to more than 600 million when it wanted to be reduced to 400, Barcelona has promised to pay –the price varies according to the source–: 50 million to Sevilla for Koundé;

58 million to Leeds United for Raphinha, 45 million to Bayern for Lewandowski and five to Racing for Pablo Torre while Christensen and Kessié presented themselves with the letter of freedom from Chelsea and Milan.

There will surely be some more additions –surely that of Marcos Alonso– after the draw against Rayo.

The registrations, in any case, will be based on a list of casualties and transfers that so far has not provided more than 35 million after the departures of Coutinho -Aston Villa paid 20 million-, Jutglà -Brugge paid five- and Trincão –Sporting Club can contribute 10–.

They did not leave a net euro (Bournemouth), Wagué (Gorica), Alves (Puma), Adama (Wolves), Luuk de Jong (PSV) Mingueza (Celtic), Lenglet (Tottenham), Riqui Puig (Los Angeles Galaxy) and Collado (Elche).

The fate of Umtiti, Braithwaite and Memphis is still unknown and he does not stop marketing with Frenkie de Jong.

The low income and the many pending transfers have alerted most clubs: "If you don't pay, we will have a global problem that will come out in all the media in the world," Leeds owner Andrea Radizzani told

after the policy Barça sports has caused the interest and perplexity of newspapers such as

.

"I'm not a player, I take calculated risks," Laporta defended himself after raising nearly 800 million by activating five levers, a term that has made a fortune in Barcelona jargon and that explains the president's ability to hide the loss of entity's assets.

The levers are simply assets that Barça has sold with the permission of the assembly: 25% of the television rights for 25 years to Sixth Street –10% for 207 million and 15% for 320– and 49% of Barça Studios for around 200 million – 24.5% to Socios.com for 100 million and 24.5% for 100 million more to Orpheus Media, a company managed by Jaume Roures, the audiovisual producer and founding partner of Mediapro who has already endorsed at the last minute to Laporta in the 2021 elections.

And for when more money is needed to cover expenses, 49% of the capital of the BLM company, which is responsible for marketing Barcelona products, will be used.

A risky plan because Laporta prefers to use the euros in signings and not in reducing the debt once the club has recovered its own funds and improved its balance sheet and solvency.

No one doubts in any case that the creditors will control the investment and will supervise an accounting that requires a lot of austerity and the increase of income that is already limited and has decreased since Messi's departure: he will stop earning 41 million a year for television rights and the operation of the stadium will be altered in 2023 due to the transfer to Montjuïc due to the Espai Barça.

Nor will it be easy to manage a budget that foresees 920 million expenses, 620 of which are part of the game of chips and amortizations and 300 in non-sports salaries.

The power of investment funds increases in the same proportion as Barça's ability to maneuver decreases.

The risk is that the entity becomes a sports public limited company (SAD) in the short or medium term.

This is how it is discussed in the financial media and some sector of Barcelona itself considers it necessary to channel Barça.

It is not Laporta's opinion because where the others see a problem that is difficult to solve, the president sees a unique opportunity to revive the club along the line that he already traced when he was elected president for the first time in 2003. The difference is that the move is Now much riskier.

"We are not playing for the season but for the future on a card," sources close to Camp Nou agree.

Nobody disagrees with a president who has become the executive director of a club that works like a family business after dismissing CEO Ferran Reverter.

At the risk of falling into nepotism and assuming the departure of solvent executives, loyalty prevails over professionalism, chastened as Laporta was by the government crises of his previous mandate (2003-2010).

Now without the yoke of guarantees, the board of directors has no more control than that of some delighted members of life because, despite their condition as owners of the club, the crisis has not affected their pockets, oblivious to the negligence of the former meeting of Josep Maria Bartomeu.

“They are not to blame for what happened”, repeats the current president of Barça.

Laporta prefers to touch the salaries and review the players' contracts – it is about deferring or lowering the agreed amounts – to balance the accounts required by the League.

The subscribers congratulate themselves because the president has regained control of a club that had been left in the hands of the footballers and they are grateful that the tuning of the stadium depends on a sponsor like Spotify.

Laporta's presidentialism is not only presented as necessary from his environment, but also boasts of having no alternative and being very representative of Barcelona against the clubs owned by sheikhs or those in the hands of Chinese or United States businessmen .

The businessman Jaume Roures, the founding partner of Mediapro and administrator of Orpheus Media who has bought 24% of Barça Studios, maintains that Florentino Pérez acted in the same way as Laporta in 2000 when he had to lift Madrid.

Laporta is not a builder or a millionaire but rather responds to the figure of a Barcelona lawyer who seems to have been born to be president of Barça.

Is there anyone more of a Barcelona supporter, more of a Cruyff supporter, more of a guardiolist and more of an independent supporter than Laporta after having been a councilor and deputy to the Parliament of Catalonia in 2010, before the

?

He even seems to have metabolized Barcelona after fighting Josep Lluís Núñez and sharing a directive first and then rivaling Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell.

The Barça universe revolves around him since he led the Elefant Blau and the motion of censure in 1998.

More information

The pressure of Barcelona

Laporta himself was subjected to a punishment vote in 2008 and two years later he faced a social responsibility action presented by the Rosell board.

Those cases resolved in his favor now serve him in some way so as not to have to give explanations about his way of handling things on his return to the presidency since 2021. Today the operations are not detailed with the excuse of confidentiality, nor is it explained if Commissions were paid for the signings of Raphinha and Lewandowski, but the president publicly asks for recognition for the work of friendly intermediaries such as Pini Zahavi.

The condition of having been the president of what is considered the best Barça in history, the one that in 2009 was defined by its style of play and cult of the Masia, endorses him against those who left the club technically bankrupt and therefore without defense.

There are no lawsuits or complaints as happened in previous times and even the opposition is constructive given the critical moment for Barça: the sports proposal of the candidate Víctor Font, personified in Xavi and Jordi Cruyff, was ultimately absorbed by Laporta himself.

Barcelona fans seem to have agreed that there is no other remedy by action or omission than to let Laporta do it – it will be with him or it will not be – in some delicate years for the most emblematic institutions and organizations in Catalonia.

Although social, economic and sporting change invites the club to rethink, some of the agents who could bring about it have become spectators of Laporta's work, accustomed to improvising and finding a last-minute solution to Barça's problems.

Barcelona banner in Las Vegas to promote this summer's Clásico.

The plan has even been supported by Florentino Pérez, the president of Madrid, Barça's natural rival.

Laporta and Florentino have teamed up for common interests such as the Super League.

Both go in a direction opposite to that of the president of the League, Javier Tebas, and therefore it is not surprising that they share interests with Sixth Street.

The rivalry, manifest on the pitch and apparent on the banners, is not at odds with complicity in such serious matters as was the elimination last December of the guarantee of 15% of the budget that the law required from the boards of clubs that did not they were sad.

Laporta was also condescending to Florentino in his moment of weakness when Madrid closed the 2020-2021 season in white, Zidane announced his departure and the president himself announced at

the launch of the Super League without anticipating the reaction of the Premier and the Bundesliga.

The alliances are of many types and the decisions are sometimes controversial, none like Messi's departure to PSG, which was enthusiastically followed from the Bernabéu and with surprise in the League, willing to be tolerant with the Argentine's continuity if Barça he signed the global credit with CVC instead of undertaking the path of levers and distanced himself from Madrid.

Now, a season later, Laporta has had no problems signing an agreement with a businessman like Roures, who is linked to the League and therefore to Tebas through Mediapro.

Laporta is tricking the situation, without fear of difficulty or adversity, full of self-esteem and encouraged after his time in Las Vegas.

The tour of the United States put the focus on signings, aroused the enthusiasm of the fans and activated the Barça brand.

The president's government work was one while he had to endorse, another when he had to get along with Reverter and a third since he also became CEO and does not have to explain himself to anyone at the Camp Nou.

His merit has been to generate the feeling that supporting him means saving Barça because he is the president who has dared to rescue the club from a tremendous inheritance and pending judgment with cases such as Barçagate and Forensic that the current board sent to the Prosecutor's Office Provincial.

At 60 years old, Laporta is in everything and with his charisma he has bewitched a large part of Barcelona fans;

the other party, which he is silent, considers him a populist who has put the club at serious risk.

The president has given himself a year to recover Barça when the executives asked for five.

In the short term everything is more exciting.

The world of soccer is expectant with the result;

the financier, moreover, is on the lookout because business is not exactly a friend of uncertainty, and Goldman Sachs has a lot to say there.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on

50% off

Subscribe to continue reading

read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber