Víctor Font affirms that Laporta’s Barça “is worse” than Bartomeu’s

Two and a half years after the elections, Barça, the club “is worse off”. This is the opinion of Víctor Font, one of the contenders in the March 2021 elections that Joan Laporta won. The promise of change and regeneration of the current president have not been fulfilled. The Football League has been won, and that is the only factor that generates “satisfaction” in the former candidate, who expressed his “sadness, disappointment and great, great concern” about the real state of the entity

“The club is worse than two years ago in terms of numbers: we have more expenses, more losses, more debts and less assets, and that is not opinions, but data,” said Font, who made a new comparison, one year after the latter, because his style of opposition does not consist in issuing periodic criticism, but in expressing his point of view at least once a season, and because of the desire to express the voice of the 17,000 people who voted for him (16,679, 29.99%).

Font lamented that Laporta “has been incapable” of “combining talents and will” to rebuild the ruinous Barça left by Josep Maria Bartomeu, forced to resign after it prospered the motion of censure, promoted, among various groups, by Font.

The biggest mistake: losing Messi

One of the biggest mistakes, if not the biggest, was lose Leo Messi in the summer of 2021. “That Leo left and that he didn’t Messi He left and that he has not returned is a leadership and management problem& rdquor ; Font rebuked Laporta, ironizing that “with a barbecue and a hug to a mannequin things will not be fixed”, alluding to the solutions that in his day he planned to use the current president to convince the Argentine star. Font, on the other hand, insinuated that his formula was similar to that he has convinced Leo to sign for Inter Miami. It was not like that, and on August 5, 2021, the best footballer in history left. He was about to come back this time. Leo was the one who called to return to Barça -Xavi, in particular-, Font corroborated, but Laporta “has not created the conditions” for the 10 to dress again as a Barça player.

The businessman from Granollers sees it as more feasible for another high-profile return to take place, that of Pep Guardiola, “if we are capable of creating the appropriate conditions for this to be possible. “If today can be better than tomorrow,” Font urged, aware of that the City coach has two years left on his contract. He spoke in the plural, but he was referring to himself and his group of collaborators, some of whom were present at the appearance. Font explained that he was in Istanbul and spoke with Guardiola, Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano.He considered it unusual that “all that talent, who is a Barcelona fan, is working for the competition; At the party in Istanbul there were culés everywhere “. It can’t be that City is the most valued brand, and not Barça, because it has been done with culé talent”, he summed up.

The “three-dimensional” Barça

And Font’s recipe is to think of “a three-dimensional Barça” that flees from “the trenches” and adopts a new management model, “without a president who puts on the Superman suit” believing that it will solve all problems. That three-dimensional Barça for the division of the entity in the economic field, the sports one, which Guardiola would lead, and the institutional one.

Font’s accounts estimate that Barça has lost a billion in the ordinary year with Laporta, among the almost 500 million of the first campaign (20-21), shared with Bartomeu and the management board, the 169 million of the previous one (21 -22) and the close to 250 million that are expected from the current one, leaving aside the levers. He also calculates that the salary mass “costs 30 million more than Bartomeu’s with his mismanagement.”

That is one of the reasons why he urged the president to open up to listen to the culés who are helping, as is his case. Font regrets that Laporta has not wanted to sit down with him even once since he became president. There was an appointment and it was canceled five minutes before. He reiterated his offer to “help” and to contribute the “more professionalized and transparent program, with capable people” that it had in the elections, part of which has been adopted by the current board. At least in the signing of Xavi Hernández. “The best decision, without a doubt, of the mandate.” The worst, said and written, was lose Messi; an error aggravated by not having been able to capitalize, he added, his world champion title with Argentina.

Font also boasted that LaLiga had approved Barça’s feasibility plan, which he equated to the “shock plan” prepared by the candidacy he was leading if he won the elections.

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His plan for the Espai Barça did not include, he recalled, the exile of Montjuïc, but to combine the remodeling works with the football activity in the stadium. He hinted that he would not have bet on an unknown firm like Turkey’s Limak Construction. “I don’t think the most relevant criteria for a decision like this is to choose who makes it faster and cheaper in a project like this in a house that has to last us a hundred years,” he maintained.

Perhaps it will be quick if the prospect of the team reappearing at the Camp Nou in November 2024 comes true; cheap, it is not at all. Although The financing managed is 1,472 million euros, according to what Laporta specified before the Senat del Barça, the financial obligations contracted will delay the obtaining of benefits. “The other part that has not been explained to us is that money lenders will have a lot to say on issues that affect economic activity,” added Font, stressing the opacity in Laporta’s management. She also criticized the transfer of commissions in the signings, alluding to the relationship between Deco and Alejandro Echevarría, the former brother-in-law of the president and whose role in the club is not at all clear despite his presence at some meetings.