I remember back in the summer of 2003 attending a press conference organised by the Elefant Blau during the FC Barcelona presidential election campaign at which the then candidate Joan Laporta sat side by side with his running mate Sandro Rosell.
There was a sense of positive expectation. The Elefant Blau had made huge a huge advance on the collective consciousness of football fans worldwide as a grassroots movement that believed in democracy , transparency , and financial accountability. A new era was beckoning after decades during which Barca ‘s image as mes que un club had ended up being rather tarnished by the despotic rule and alleged financial irregularities of Jose Luis Nunez.
No matter that Laporta was a little known lawyer with a father in law strongly associated with the Franco regime, or that Rosell was a senior executive with Nike, or that their campaign had ended up predicated on a false promise that David Beckham was on his way to Barca and not Real Madrid. Instead of Beckham, the Elefant Blau delivered on Ronaldinho which after all seemed a more logical arrangement given Rosell’s strong commercial ties with Brazilian football at the time.
A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. Laporta went on to be elected and he fell out big time with Rosell who then succeeded him as president, and the two men ended up throwing a great deal of mud at each other . The unresolved and rather unpleasant legal battle of action and counter action has done the reputation of either men not much good although there is little sign of a tactical reconciliation.
On the contrary Rosell continues to generate opposition over his decision to strike a massive sponsorship deal with Qatar. No matter that Pep Guardiola was once a player in Qatar, and helped support the arab country’s controversial bid for the 2022 World Cup or that an alleged whistleblower confessed earlier this summer that she had invented claims of bribery of FIFA votes or that Qatar was cited by the Financial Times last week as a key supporter of the beloved Libyan revolution, having armed and financed anti-Gaddafy rebels.
For the critics, the image of Qatar is of an autocratic state that mistreats its women and its foreign workers and which is at odds with FC Barcelona’s identity with democracy and the ‘purity’ of its shirt. It’s a debate that is being fuelled by former allies of Laporta who nonetheless should realise that Rosell’s presidency will remain pretty unassailable as long as Barca continues to win trophies and dazzle the world with the brilliance of its football not least that played by the club’s recent not inexpensive signing Cesc Fabregas.
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