FC Barcelona is the face of what NOT to do in sports, and in football...
The following is an essay, but it also contains a lot of information, and little of opinion... That said, don't take it personally. And yes, I am referring to the fans of FC Barcelona... In 2006, Barça, which is a team with more than 100 years of history, was just winning its 2nd UEFA Champions League, in Paris, and against an Arsenal FC full of legends and young promises, of Arsene Wenger. Who was behind that sporting achievement for the club from Barcelona? Yes, one of our protagonists today: Joan Laporta, the current president of FC Barcelona...
And although FC Barcelona is a huge institution, which has survived two World Wars and a Civil War, as well as being a founding member of the Spanish league, and one of the very few teams on the planet that have never been relegated, it is no less true that for years it has been synonymous with failure, poor planning, controversy, excuses and above all NOT knowing how to compete at a European level... And if we look at the counterpart, the classic rival, it couldn't have been worse for them. The last Champions League they won was with the mythical and unforgettable MSN (Messi, Suárez and Neymar). Everything that came after that feat is for a horror story...
Personally, I feel very bad to see the direction that a mythical club, which has given so much to world football, and an example of football for the people, has taken. Think about it, there are not too many clubs that still belong to the people and their members. In a world, increasingly full of globalisation, capitalism, consulting firms and foreign capital, that there are still those isolated islands where the fans and members are the ones who manage and carry out the decisions of their team and institution. Real Madrid C.F. is also of this type. But why do I highlight this part? Because, from my point of view and with historical data, many things can be understood.
Starting with the deficient and frankly corrupt administration that has sustained FC Barcelona during many periods of its history. I don't know if there is any other club that has paid for an expensive marketing campaign to discredit its stars in the middle of the club's golden age. This happened: with a well-known former president.... Without going that far, Joan Laporta, while Messi was playing in the Copa America with his national team, hugged a mannequin with the Argentinian star's shirt, suggesting that the longed-for renewal was coming, and respecting the greatest legend of its 125-year history. We all know what ended up happening, and how it happened?
Misappropriation of funds, underutilised squad, sporting failures, added to populism from the management and a historical way of perceiving their disadvantageous position against Real Madrid, both locally and in Europe, mean that the best era in the history of FC Barcelona, where they were 4 times UEFA Champions League champions, 4, out of 5 in their trophy cabinet, paradoxically also coincides with a virtual bankruptcy of a mythical club, mortgaging the economic and income future in the not so distant future. Disrespecting their legends (they have just thrown Xavi Hernández out on the street, as if they didn't know him).
It is incredible that the club of Iniesta, Piqué, Xavi, Puyol, Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Busquets, Cruyff and Messi; is currently the clear example of what NOT to do in sports. Of how NOT to manage a squad, and definitely how NOT to deal with sports planning. It's crazy how it all went down the drain. Curiously, this post was born when I saw the new controversy of Barça, publicly attacking, from the club itself, another legend like Marc André Ter-Stegen... Seriously, it's sad to see this hotbed of football slowly but inexorably falling apart....
They should cut the losses and have a few years to become economically stable before thinking spend millions bringing expensives players.