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The drama at Barcelona continued on Monday with the arrest of the club’s former president, Josep Maria Bartomeu. Following police raids at 5 areas throughout town to grab proof and documentation, together with at Camp Nou, Bartomeu was one in every of 4 males detained, going through allegations of misuse of funds and corruption. Bartomeu’s adviser, Jaume Masferrer, Barca CEO Oscar Grau and the membership’s head of authorized providers, Roman Gomez Ponti, had been additionally arrested as a part of an investigation that was opened final 12 months into the “Barcagate” social media scandal.
It is the most recent twist in a saga that started in early 2020 when it was revealed Barca had paid an organization, I3 Ventures, to smear present and former gamers, together with Gerard Pique and Lionel Messi, in addition to membership presidential candidates akin to Joan Laporta and Victor Font. Nevertheless, it is the murky monetary particulars — which aren’t but fully clear — involving the funds to I3 Ventures, relatively than the detrimental propaganda, that led to the raids throughout the Catalan metropolis this week.
With a Copa del Rey semifinal second leg to return towards Sevilla on Wednesday and a brand new president set to be elected on Sunday, Barca will hope the arrests show the closing chapter to what has been a really chaotic 14 months each on and off the pitch.
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Throughout that point, Barcelona have been via three managers, gone trophy-less for the primary time since 2007-08, been humiliated 8-2 by Bayern Munich within the Champions League, battled with Messi over his future and compelled striker Luis Suarez out of the membership via the again door. (He is now thriving as the highest scorer for Atletico Madrid, who’re main La Liga.)
The prospect of a second trophy-less season in a row is on the playing cards, too, if they can not overturn a 2-0 deficit towards Sevilla within the cup at Camp Nou this week. In La Liga, they’re 5 factors behind leaders Atletico and have performed a recreation extra. Following their worst begin to a league marketing campaign in 30 years, at their tempo of two.15 factors per recreation they’re on monitor for round 80 factors, which might signify their lowest tally since that trophy-less marketing campaign beneath Frank Rijkaard in 2007-08.
The disappointing performances on the pitch are a consequence of mismanagement off of it. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the membership’s monetary disaster, and gross debt has risen to almost €1.2 billion, with web debt standing at €488 million. There have been rows between the gamers and the board over wage reductions. The board have fought amongst themselves, too. Administrators have stop. The president, Bartomeu, stepped down in October, though his resignation was unrelated to Barcagate. Barca, rudderless for the final 4 months, will lastly elect his successor this weekend.
“I knew Barcagate can be the start of the tip from the very first minute,” Emili Rousaud, who resigned as vice chairman final April because of discrepancies with Bartomeu, mentioned on Monday.
Monday’s occasions had been maybe the pure fruits of what has been a tumultuous 12 months in Barca’s historical past. They’ve leaped from one self-inflicted mess to a different, the pandemic exposing cracks that had been lined up for years, though they first started to appear when supervisor Ernesto Valverde was sacked.
This is how the saga unfolded, culminating within the arrests and police raids this week.
January 2020
A documentary charting Barca’s destruction since 2020 can be pure field workplace, beginning with the dismissal of Valverde after the Spanish Supercopa defeat to Atletico in Saudi Arabia. Hindsight suggests Valverde, who guided Barca to back-to-back La Liga titles and left them high of the league, was maybe the one one holding issues collectively.
Inside story: How Barca fired Valverde, signed Setien
The scramble to interchange him was performed out via media leaks from the membership and shortly grew to become a shambles, as a collection of candidates rejected the provide. Membership legend Xavi Hernandez mentioned “no.” Ronald Koeman, who would later take the job, mentioned “not now.” Backup choice Quique Setien eventually came in, however throughout the month Barca had misplaced to Valencia within the league and been knocked out of the cup by Athletic Bilbao.
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Barcelona face a first-leg deficit within the Copa del Rey and the election of a brand new president within the wake of the arrest of former president Josep Maria Bartomeu.
February
Valverde’s exit additionally supplied the backdrop to a row between Messi and former sporting director Eric Abidal. Abidal mentioned a few of the gamers had not been working laborious sufficient and had been, partly, guilty for the coach being fired. Messi did not like that and bit again at his former teammate on Instagram.
“Title names in the event you’ve obtained one thing to say and take accountability in your personal actions [sacking Valverde],” he snapped.
Per week later, Spanish radio station Cadena Ser first revealed the main points of the case that has turn out to be often called “Barcagate.” At first, it appeared a easy case of Bartomeu and his board contracting a third-party firm to smear folks not aligned with him on social media.
“It is surprising that, with the membership’s cash, the board of administrators have focused their very own members, first-team gamers, Catalan social entities and media,” Font mentioned on the time.
Bartomeu shortly denied any involvement with the social media accounts implicated and rescinded the membership’s contract with I3 Ventures, the corporate that had the contract to observe social networks for the membership. The club also threatened to take legal action towards Cadena Ser, a risk they have not but formally pursued.
March
After a Clasico defeat to Real Madrid, the coronavirus pandemic shut down soccer and the board and the gamers confronted off over pay cuts. As soon as once more, these wage negotiations were played out in the media, with the board leaking that the gamers weren’t ready to regulate their salaries. Barca’s gamers, in the meantime, via a press release mentioned they had been “shocked some folks on the membership wish to put us beneath a lot strain” once they had been all the time blissful to play a job in serving to the membership lower prices.
The entire first-team squad ultimately agreed to a 70% wage lower whereas soccer was halted and likewise pledged to make a further contribution in order that not one of the non-sporting employees’s earnings can be decreased for so long as Spain remained in a state of emergency.
April
By this stage, the membership’s government board had been combating amongst themselves in addition to with the gamers. Bartomeu requested 4 administrators to resign following disagreements over points associated to Barcagate. Ultimately, six resigned and one in every of them — Rousaud — alleged “someone’s had their hand in the till” because it grew to become clear for the primary time the scandal may very well be greater than only a few refined smear campaigns.
On April 21, a bunch of eight membership members, beneath the title “Dignitat Blaugrana,” reported Bartomeu and his board to the police for misuse of funds and corruption as a part of the Barcagate affair.
June
Soccer returned, offering a distraction from the membership’s off-pitch points, though that respite was fleeting as Setien’s workforce started to reflect the turmoil within the boardroom. Dropped factors, division between the gamers and the teaching employees and Actual Madrid’s impeccable type noticed the league title slip away. Barcelona completed second, 5 factors behind their rivals.
August
Barcelona’s nadir was the historic and humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern within the Champions League quarterfinal. The competitors was reformatted to a single-game elimination in a “bubble” setting, however Barcelona could not sustain with the Bundesliga giants, falling behind 1-0 after 4 minutes after which 4-1 after 31 minutes.
Setien was sacked after that recreation — his destiny had already been sealed when Madrid received the league in July, sources told ESPN — however even that was mishandled. He said in December that he nonetheless hasn’t been paid what he is owed by the membership and can take them to courtroom.
1:17
Alejandro Moreno says Ronald Koeman has despatched a transparent message about Antoine Griezmann’s function at Barcelona.
Koeman replaced him, Barca’s third coach in eight months, however his appointment was overshadowed by Messi, the membership’s report scorer and one of many recreation’s all-time greats, trying to force a move out of the club after 20 years of loyal, storied service. Messi sent the club a “burofax” — a service in Spain for sending paperwork the place it’s essential to show that the doc was delivered and likewise the contents of that doc — informing them of his intention to go away free of charge, per a clause in his contract. Bartomeu and the membership fought towards the clause and Messi ultimately backed down, saying he was not prepared to take the “membership of my life” to courtroom.
– Messi and Barcelona: How they fell apart, and what’s next
– Lowe: Messi, bad blood and a “burofax”
Messi, 34 in June, announced he would stay for the final year of his contract — he might nonetheless go away for nothing in June, when his deal expires — in an interview with Purpose, calling Bartomeu a liar and accusing the board of “juggling and plugging gaps” for years.
September
Whereas Barca wished Messi to remain, they tried to pressure others out. Ivan Rakitic (Sevilla) and Arturo Vidal (Inter Milan) left for little return. Suarez left for a direct rival, Atletico. “You did not deserve for them to kick you out like they did,” Messi wrote on Instagram when Suarez’s transfer was confirmed. “However the fact is that at this level, nothing surprises me.”
October
The explanations behind the membership’s desperation to shed veteran gamers on large wages quickly grew to become clear. The latest accounts, dated October 2020, revealed €488 million of web debt and gross debt of just about €1.2 billion. La Liga’s newest wage caps revealed that Barca want to chop final season’s €671m wage invoice all the way down to €347m or they danger falling foul of UEFA’s Monetary Truthful Play guidelines, as years of overspending on signings (Ousmane Dembele €145m, Philippe Coutinho €160m, Antoine Griezmann €120m) and overpaying gamers has lastly caught up.
It wasn’t the therapy of Suarez or the monetary issues that provoked the tip of Bartomeu, although, however Messi’s push to go away. On the again of the Argentine’s burofax, membership member Jordi Farre launched a motion of no confidence against Bartomeu. The movement obtained over 20,000 signatures from fellow members — the membership have round 141,000 members in complete — assembly the brink for a referendum on Bartomeu’s future.
Nevertheless, Bartomeu resigned on Oct. 27 earlier than it obtained that far, claiming it will be irresponsible to carry a referendum throughout a pandemic. He went out taking swings on the Catalan authorities for not suspending it on well being grounds, and revealed upon exiting the membership that he had been holding talks with the sport’s largest golf equipment relating to a European Tremendous League.
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ESPN FC’s Alejandro Moreno assesses the possibility for European success for soccer’s two largest stars.
January 2021
A alternative ought to have been elected inside 90 days, per the membership’s statutes, however the authentic date of Jan. 24 was pushed again because of restrictions on motion in Catalonia that made an in-person vote not possible. Lastly, on March 7, both Laporta, Font or Toni Freixa will exchange Bartomeu. They had been the one three from 9 candidates to acquire the two,257 signatures wanted to make it to polling day.
Laporta, the membership’s president between 2003 and 2010, is the favorite, with Font anticipated to be his closest challenger.
This week and past
At first look, Barcagate gave the impression to be a easy case of Bartomeu wanting to enhance his picture by attacking his critics, however the actual exposé, through investigations carried out by journalists, the police and internally over the past 12 months, is monetary irregularity.
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Ought to he keep or ought to he go? Watch Lionel Messi’s Copa del Rey motion as his time at Barca could also be coming to an finish.
I3 Ventures, registered in South America, had a contract with Barcelona for “monitoring providers on social networks,” in line with the membership. It is alleged that Barca paid them an inflated worth — greater than €1m — for that service, and there are additionally questions on why they would not have used a neighborhood firm that might have charged far much less. The largest concern is {that a} complete of six funds to I3 Ventures all got here up just below €200,000, as something larger than that in a lump sum must be permitted by the board. There are additionally allegations the membership had comparable contracts and cost constructions arrange with different corporations.
“Now we have most respect for the police’s actions and likewise for the presumption of innocence,” mentioned Laporta, the previous Barca president who hopes to succeed Bartomeu when Barca members vote on Sunday. “However we deeply remorse what’s occurred as a result of it massively damages the membership’s picture and repute.”
Bartomeu must return to courtroom to defend himself, though he appeared relaxed when he was freed on Tuesday, stopping to pose for selfies with supporters. Past the injury to their repute, Barca will not be charged or face any punishment for the Barcagate scandal; the decide has listed them as an “affected get together.”
In the meantime, Barca are slowly bettering beneath Koeman. They’re unbeaten in 15 video games within the league and shall be assured of manufacturing a comeback towards Sevilla after beating them on Saturday in La Liga. In the event that they handle that, the week might finish with a cup last, a brand new president and a recent begin. Though if the final 14 months have taught us something, it is you could by no means make certain if you’ve hit all-time low.
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