After reading the open letter sent by FC Barcelona’s former president to the current board on August 13th, at El Cor Blaugrana we wanted to write a reply, as we feel entitled to. We are in total astonishment, by the fact that even almost a year after his departure, former president is unable to recognize and accept his part in the Club’s current situation.
We want to remember that, in October 7th last year, Bartomeu and his board had known that + 20,000 signatures submitted on 17 September were validated. After that, the only thing they needed to do, was to call for a vote of no censorship. But in 20 days, util their resignation, their action was none other than to delay the vote. In light of these events, on October 27th, we submitted the Club a petition to open an internal complaint for serious breach of the Statutes. He and his board of directors blatantly prevented the vote of no confidence from taking place. They did nnot act to protect member’s health as Bartomeu says in his letter, as Catalan government had authorized protocols to held the vote. Their only purpose was to hinder the process.
On the other hand, his quotes implying that his tenure left two revenue options to the next board, are absolutely consistent with his behavior as president. The Superleague ‘project’, which only plan was to accept 350M from an investor, without a business model or a revenue stream, was another example of his short-term vision and lack of management capacity. The proposal to sell Club’s assets, so-called ‘Barça Corporate’ project, was another example. To lose future value in order to cover debts accumulated by them during their tenure, which were generated due to a careless, not to say negligent, management, is another proof od their intention of destroying what we were as a club. They almost succeeded at it.
It is therefore clear that these two sources of income were invented by Bartomeu and co. to cover their missmanagement and lack of any sort of strategy, in sports and finance, which was characteristic of his tenure. It is also clear that, when those sources of income are not considered by the current board, the real impact of Bartomeu’s last year is becoming to sink in all of us.
The letter he wrote and was publised by the press last Friday, once again proved we were right to promote the motion of censorship in 2020. We cannot imagine would have happened if Bartomeu had finished his term. Fortunately, and thanks to thousands of members and millions of fans, we di not allow it.
Bartomeu left because we made him to. After starting the motion of no censorship, we keep working for him or any of his board members would never get close to the Club again. We have several actions on that matter. One of them is that we are taking part as in the court case known as #BartoGate.
Finally, we would like to remember Bartomeu’s words in 2008, and make them our own. In that ocasion, Bartomeu said to the press “FC Barcelona President (meaning Laporta) should apologize to all members”. We demand him to act in consequence and apologize himself for a number of reasons. We list below some of them:
- The 15M€ overprice paid during the Griezmann signing, in which, according to press statements at that time, a close collaborator of his oversaw this operation
- Being responsible of, alongside with Sandro Rosell, FC Barcelona being charged guilty of fiscal fraud, atated by Spains Court, after Neymar’s signing
- After this episode, by means of former Legal Affairs Chief, Roman Gomez Ponti, that they would: “Clarify responsabilities in this subject. We have a roadmap, which involves approval of this deal (which led Barca to pay milions of euros to exonerate Rosell and Bartomeu) and after that, the Club will investigate and find people responsible for this mistake. We will tell you about this in the future. This is not over. The Club has suffered losses and it won’t be forgotten” . After more than five years, the former board did nothing to clarify who were guilty in this case
- Put pressure on the Presidente of the Vote of Censorship Commission last year, with private and public statements that were intented to question his judgement
- Make every possible effort to delay and cancel the vote of censorship, even involving the Guardia Civil for that, in one of the most embarrasing episodes of the Club’s recent history
- Over 20 signings made for Barça B, most of them players from Brazil who never player a single minute for the team
- Hiring a company to monitor social media for the Club, asking them also to created and fed profiles dedicated to insult people related to the Club, including Pep Guardiola, Victor Font, and even players like Gerard Piqué • Not respecting the decision taken in a vote at the extraordinary board meeting in February 2020, following the scandal #Bartogate, where it was decided by majority, to advance the elections
- Failing to respect the decision takien by the majority of the board in February 2020, when advancing election was decided by the mayority of the board, following the #BartoGate scandal
- Paying an unexplicable amount of 1,5M€ to Laietà Sports Club, as compensation for alleged inconveniences they might have suffering during the inexistent construction works for the new Palau Blaugrana
- Holding the biggest responsibility on the departure of the best football player in history. First, for makin him wanting to leave, and then, for him actually leaving due the financial crisis the Club is suffering, and the impossibility of meeting La Liga’s salary cap
- Making all sorts of player exchanges that were merely accounting operations to offset short-term losses. These operations, altough legal, were of dubious ethical nature, but made a common practice in order to reduce accounted losses
We hope hope we witnessed the last chapter of his disastrous management last Sunday, as our captain and symbol was forced out as a direct result of Bartomeu’s tenure.
It is from this moment that our group expresses and reiterates its availability to rebuild our Club
