I’m going to say it right up front: The newspaper There are such good people that, apparently, I was the only one who thought, when Joan Laportasuch a president of Barçahe said the other day, on one of those days in which he is funny and horny, that we spent the day “speaking of ‘collonades’ and not the penalty against Raphinha in Vallecas”who was referring to the very harsh information that our newspaper is publishing about the inhumane working conditions of the workers from Camp Nou, Barça and Limak.
I was so obsessed with it, it seemed so daring to me, that I called one of the few friends I still have left in the club and asked him, please, to probe the president’s surroundings, that is, the ‘cabin’, to find out if I was right or it was another lucubration of mine.
A few hours later, my friend, who is still very, very, efficient, although he doesn’t get a single piece of news to give me, denied me the biggest one. “They tell me that when the president talks about ‘collonades’, he is referring to the mess that arose with the appearance of the photograph with Rafa Márquez, in Palamós.”
Okay, I believe it. So, let’s continue talking about those ‘collonades’, which show that, despite having the largest communication department in the Ibex 35, there is no one at the wheel. That is to say, they continually screw up. And I say it because Jose Manuel Lazarowho has spent almost two decades being the reference in the culé locker room, said the other day in ‘RAC1 version’ that the publication, by Barça, of the photo of Laporta with Márquez “It was a very serious mistake by the club.”
I could have given names, even I could!, but if Lazarus didn’t do it, I won’t. The fact is that the president went to Palamós in a fun way, like another fan. The fact, Lázaro said, I insist, a true authority on the matter, is that he went down to the locker room (“as always,” Lázaro insisted) and that photo was one more of the 1,234 that the club’s photographer takes daily of the president. What’s more, there are those who think (and are right) that Barça’s communications department works more for the president than for the club.
The one that got involved!
I repeat, they took the photo without malice, without any intention. That: they took the photo. That’s it. But Lázaro explained that, next, they consulted with someone from Communications, who authorized its publication “incorrectly.” on the club’s networks. “And she got involved, the one who got involved! Well, we all gave that photo the interpretation that it didn’t have. That is to say: Laporta is putting pressure on Xavi.”
It was the club, again, not the press, who turned a fleeting, innocuous, banal photo into a projectile against Xavi, whose DIRCOM (personal) asked Laporta, in very good manners and with great tact, that, after the victory against Porto (the photo was going to be the same, even losing), he hugged the coach to publish that other ‘collonade’ on Barça’s networks and thus counteract the impact that Palamós’ mistake had had.
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“When I joined the club,” Lázaro explained to RAC1, “the first thing I learned is that you always have to wear the Barça cap because, above all, there is the club. And, in that sense, you must always have a general, panoramic view of the entity. That is, always ask yourself if we make this decision, how does it affect, who does it affect, and what repercussion will it have? That’s what it’s called Risk management. And, in the case of the photo of the president with Márquez, no one appreciated that publishing it could cause a bad, inappropriate, unnecessary and uncertain interpretation. Another thing is that it had been done intentionally. That is to say, Laporta would have wanted to give Xavi a touch. So, nothing to say. But it was not like that, hence the error, the null assessment of risks.” And, of course, after 48 hours, we had to prepare the hug with Xavi.
These are the ‘collonades’ that should worry the president and not look for excuses for a bad ‘equalizer’ when talking about the penalty against Raphinha. Of course Laporta is the king of pointing at the Moon and everyone looks at his finger, not the Moon.