Barcelona's board is cancer, basically

What is going on at Barcelona?

As Jose V. Madolell once wrote about his two friends Sandro Rossell and Joan (whom I shall refer to as Jan, as do most) Laporta; there was an inherent enemity pretty soon after Laporta's election as President. Sandro disgareed on a lot of things and was the main opposition voice of Jan in the board. See, Sandro is a businessman. He was the one who helped Perez get Figo to Real Madrid. With Sandro, who is now in jail, there is no club loyalty, none of that. Business, for himself and his associates, who are also in jail, now.

Bartomeu is the direct disciple of Rossell. Rossell stepped down in 2014 after he and the club were attacked for the Neymar transfer by authorities, everyone knew that. However, he said he stepped down as someone had fired a BB gun at his house, and he cannot carry on in such insecurity. A BB gun.

Bartomeu took over from Sandro, but Sandro was still behind the scenes, calling the shots. Jan did a lot of things Sandro did not agree with. Sandro did not like Johan Cruijff, and Laporta loved him. And Jan brought success to this club. Great success. What Sandro wanted after he became President in 2010 was to get away with everything Jan did and make his own model. Jan was a good man, he instilled the two term rule in the club to stop incidents like before, when Josep Nunez was the club president for almost a quarter of a century.

Of the many first things he did, Sandro made sure Cruijff did not stay on as honorary president. Cruijff left, and kept on working with the Catalan National team instead. Pep had signed Dmytro Chygrynskiy from Shakhtar Donestk, and he had a bad first season. Pep, however, saw potential in the CB and promised him (it's written in his book) that he wanted to keep Dmytro for one more season. Sandro, however, took charge and sold Dmytro, without even consulting Pep. Gone, just like that. He had to show who's in charge.

Pep understood then, the treatment to Johan and Dmytro, that this is not the same club he was winning sextuples with. The club had changed, with one election.

Next in line was Óscar García, another loyal Cruijffista. He was tipped for the B team position, was managing the youth levels, had great promise. Gone.

Next was UNICEF. Barcelona had never had a sponsor, unlike all other clubs, and supporters loved that. The shirt was pure, above commercialism, a poet in this money filled world of football. UNICEF on the shirt was an act that the world praised, as Barcelona helped kids all around the world rise from poverty and hardship and work on their dreams. More than a club.

Sandro said it was time to let go off UNICEF and he put on Qatar foundation. He could not directly switch to a commercial sponsor, as the fans would have torn him apart then. He said it will remain a charitable foundation, but soon Qatar Foundation was gone, to be replaced by Qatar Airways. In the recent document released about the Qatar World Cup 2022 scam, which looks like was bribed to be made happen, Sandro Rossell's name is mentioned 39 times, with a full chapter in the document to his name. He helped broker the Qatar deal and profited from it handsomely. Similar reasons Bartomeu could not do much for the Verratti move, PSG are owned by the same people who own Qatar, and Barto cannot anger his virtual masters.

Then came Neymar. Great player, but Sandro and Barto did not only sign him for that. They saw his rising global brand. In the court cases, it was revealed that Neymar's father was gifted, apart from the huge money, with an orgy that the club paid for. Soon enough, the club puppet newspapers and even the club in some capacity released polls asking if it would be right to sell MESSI. 8% voted yes. It was coming, make Neymar the focal point of the team and let go of Messi. Why? Messi is not a Nike athlete, and Sandro is a former executive of Nike. Him, Nike, Brasil FA and Qatar are all different pillars in this big scam for which he is in jail now. Neymar, however is a Nike athlete. Major money.

It did not turn out like that. Neymar for all his talent, has not been able to have a season close to any of Leo's, and that selling off idea has died off like defenders die against Leo.

After that, came the dismanting of La Masia. Pep Segura got the job for managing La Masia. Despite what Barto loyalists tell you, Pep Segura is a self proclaimed English football lover, he loves the route 1 (cross and pray) way. According to numerous reports from Catalunya for a while, Pep Segura has intervened and asked the Masia coaches to practise more on crosses and less on positional play. He has recently been promoted to a far bigger position than just Masia.

There are way too many issues to talk about, impossible in a single post. To summarise, the club, first team, masia, business wise, it's all going a massive change since the 2010 elections and even more since the 2015 elections and that change is targeted to bury everything Johan built and then build their own on that.

That, however, is not working out well, for the obvious reason. These are mere corrupted businessmen. Johan was Johan.