Vote on the Barcelona Vote

By: chris | July 5th, 2008

Wasn’t exactly a wildly successful season for Barcelona. After the hype to end all hype with an attack featuring Ronaldinho, Messi, Henry, Eto’o, etc. etc., they managed a haul of zero trophies and only nabbed 3rd place, while bitter rival Real Madrid won their second straight trophy. Finishing without trophies for two straight years is bad enough, but when it’s coupled with Real titles, fans start to get a little pissed.

And that’s what they did. One fan, a lawyer named Oriol Giralt, approached some other members of the club (9,000+) and got enough signatures to force a vote of confidence for the current board – mostly for Joan Laporta, the chairman. If more than 10% of the club’s members vote, with 66% of those voting against the board, they’ll be dumped. Laporta took over in 2003, and since then they’ve won two La Liga titles and one Champions League title. Not terrible. But it doesn’t matter.

What’s funny is that Barcelona has gone about this transfer season the right way and managed some great buys. They’ve scrapped the “win 5-4″ squad balance and bought some defenders of supreme quality, namely that Dani Alves guy for a minuscule 30m. (Yeah, 30m for a fullback.) They’re letting go of the big named disappointments – Deco, Ronaldinho and Eto’o, namely – while bringing in unsexy but quality, efficient role players in a team, not eleven names. Along with Alves they’ve brought in two exciting and high quality young defenders in Martin Caceras and Gerard Pique for roughly 23m, as well as Seydou Keita, a steamrolling central mid. Away from the Nou Camp last year they gave up an astounding 31 goals while only scoring 30, so it’s clear the back needed some fixin’. Seems like things are on the up, right?

And now, it appears if the vote does go through, it could mean the end of the transfer period, because an interim board can only do so much according to Barca VP Albert Vicens.

‘As usual, everyone says what they want to, but the statutes say that the faculties of the interim board are limited,’ he said.

‘If they are limited, they are not allowed to buy players nor to bring them in on loan. They can only pay the commitments that the club has already assumed, but not to assume new commitments such as contracts or buying and selling players.

Giralt, the person who began this charade, disagrees and says that all normal responsibilities can be fulfilled with an interim board. Either could be right here, as they each would have their own motivations for lying. (Or maybe Giralt is hoping, because he sounds like the type of guy who would like to takeover Laporta’s position, another consideration.)

What we want to ask is: Should this vote go for or against the Barcelona board? They’ve made great changes, bringing in new faces, including their new coach Josep Guardiola, and seemed to have changed the philosophy which has failed the last two years. Can’t ask for much more than admitting your faults and doing your best to change it with actions rather than words. Not to mention bringing only Barcelona’s second ever European title back to the Nou Camp. And then there are the potential personal motivations behind Giralt’s censure motion. Or is this another case of fans not truly understanding how difficult it is to run a successful sports organization? Then again, this is Barcelona, two years without a trophy followed by so much turnover could truly be considered a crisis.

What’s your say? Do these Barcelona fans have a legitimate gripe or should they calm down already?

Should Barca keep its board?
( surveys)