Independence betrays Bartomeu

Bartomeu has been thrown out by independence. Six years later, the president of Barcelona has had to leave his post because the Generalitat has wanted him to. A moderate profile that has never wanted to put Barça at the service of Catalonia's independence, beyond the toll that the post entails. His time at the head of the Catalan club has not been the best in recent years. Messi's crisis has marked his career and the economic hole may cost him dearly when the next Junta lifts the carpets of his management. 

"Barça is a Catalan and Catalanist club, but we don't do politics. I will always confront whoever uses the club in a partisan way" said Bartomeu in a tweet in June 2015 shortly before he was ratified as president by 56% of the members. A statement of intent that has cost him the position at the worst possible time for the club. From outside Catalonia one might think that Barça has become very aligned with the independence of Catalonia. But the reality is that the government of Puigdemont and Torra wanted FC Barcelona to be fully committed to the cause. A club capable of leaving the Spanish League behind in order to carry out its "indepe" plan. 

Bartomeu was going to be put before a motion of censure in November or an election in March 2021. He was a professional corpse in Barcelona. A club that was very economically depleted, fighting for a new ERTE with its workers, with Messi upset at not being able to leave the club in the summer and with an unbalanced staff that could not fight for titles. The president who replaced Rosell would be portrayed as one of the worst in the history of Azulgrana. However, the clamour for independence meant that he had to put his hands on the president's office. He shook the armchair so that the piece would fall and waited for another one from his rope. The Ministry of Health turned its head when Barça asked for permission to hold the vote of no confidence. Their intention was to hold it in mid-November in various venues around Catalonia, the rest of Spain and Andorra to avoid the collapse of Camp Nou. The Generalitat took a stand and, with an iron hand and a silk glove, allowed the vote to take place on All Saints' Day at the stadium. Pere Aragonés accelerated the countdown to Bartomeu's departure. 

Bartomeu may have been a bad president. History and the soçi will put him in his place. But the story that the Catalan radical left likes so much will have to say that he did not make Barça sufficiently independent. That he left the presidency before putting the partner in a ballot box in the middle of a pandemic and with Catalonia valuing home confinement at the weekends. Bartomeu attacked the same people who have been fed his ideology in recent months, "the government itself is proposing painful measures for citizens, with serious repercussions for people and businesses, and even stronger measures are being suggested, such as weekend confinement. But he maintains that it is possible to vote," he complained.

The pro-independence policy wants another president before the elections to the Generalitat on 14 February 2021. The tweet of 1 October 2017, which condemned "the actions carried out in many towns throughout Catalonia to prevent the exercise of the democratic right" is not enough. Nor did another one that said "prison is not the solution" after the sentence of the trial for the illegal referendum. And before all this, in May 2017, Barça had supported the National Pact for the Referendum in a statement in several languages so that there would be no doubt about its position. 

Don't forget the reason why you have to go to the polls next December, when that Barcelona-Las Palmas on 1 October 2017 was disputed because Messi made it possible. Piqué led the group of rebels who wanted to suspend him in order to sacrifice themselves to the nationalist cause. Nor should he forget the banners in favour of independence or the trial of those accused of the 1st October, which Bartomeu never ordered removed from the stands of the Camp Nou. Let him not forget it, because whoever comes to occupy the bluebell chair will have to do much more if he wants to stay in office. Torra has gone from asking the CUP to "tighten up" on the streets to choosing Barça as the flag of his doctrine. 

The candidates for the presidency of Barcelona are Víctor Font, Toni Freixa, Jordi Farré, Agustí Benedito, Lluís Fernández Alá and former vice-president Emili Rousaud. Their sports programmes will be put on the back burner. Font says he can count on Xavi Hernández's commitment to the bench and that gives him many points. Jordi Farré is the candidate who got the vote of no confidence. He is the perfect tool, together with the Generalitat, to bog down Barça in Catalan politics. On his Twitter he proudly wears the yellow ribbon and defines himself as "Independentist". It doesn't matter how he signs, his club project and his management if he joins the right cause. 

Joan Laporta is the great cover of this plot. His tweet after Bartomeu's resignation was disturbing, as Pedro Sánchez would say, "It was about time. At last the way is open to remake Barça". These roads have a clear path in favour of the independence of Catalonia. Another yellow ribbon that leaves no doubt about his intentions. In sporting terms, Guardiola's return would close the perfect circle and turn Barça into a political party full of great figures sold out to the cause. 

But Bartomeu made a gesture that could complicate Barça's existence. A decision taken out of pure pride. "The outgoing board of directors approved all the requirements needed to participate in a future European Super League of football clubs," the outgoing president announced at the end of his speech. He left it there. As if nothing had happened. A seed in the future of football in Europe. The first club president to speak openly of another model of competition. The bar conversation as Thebes describes the Super League already has a face and eyes. The next president of Barça will make Bartomeu good.