Tag: bartomeu

Our response to Bartomeu’s letter

After reading the open letter sent by FC Barcelona’s former president to the current board on August 13th, at El Cor Blaugrana we wanted to write a reply, as we feel entitled to. We are in total astonishment, by the fact that even almost a year after his departure, former president is unable to recognize and accept his part in the Club’s current situation.

We want to remember that, in October 7th last year,  Bartomeu and his board had known that + 20,000 signatures submitted on 17 September were validated. After that, the only thing they needed to do, was to call for a vote of no censorship. But in 20 days, util their resignation, their action was none other than to delay the vote. In light of these events, on October 27th, we submitted the Club a petition to open an internal complaint for serious breach of the Statutes. He and his board of directors blatantly prevented the vote of no confidence from taking place. They did nnot act to protect member’s health as Bartomeu says in his letter, as Catalan government had authorized protocols to held the vote. Their only purpose was to hinder the process.

On the other hand, his quotes implying that his tenure left two revenue options to the next board, are absolutely consistent with his behavior as president. The Superleague ‘project’, which only plan was to accept 350M from an investor, without a business model or a revenue stream,  was another example of his short-term vision and lack of management capacity. The proposal to sell Club’s assets, so-called ‘Barça Corporate’ project, was another example. To lose future value in order to cover debts accumulated by them during their tenure, which were generated due to a careless, not to say negligent, management, is another proof od their intention of destroying what we were as a club. They almost succeeded at it.

It is therefore clear that these two sources of income were invented by Bartomeu and co. to cover their missmanagement and lack of any sort of strategy, in sports and finance, which was characteristic of his tenure. It is also clear that, when those sources of income are not considered by the current board, the real impact of Bartomeu’s last year is becoming to sink in all of us.

The letter he wrote and was publised by the press last Friday, once again proved we were right to promote the motion of censorship in 2020. We cannot imagine would have happened if Bartomeu had finished his term. Fortunately, and thanks to thousands of members and millions of fans, we di not allow it.

Bartomeu left because we made him to. After starting the motion of no censorship, we keep working for him or any of his board members would never get close to the Club again. We have several actions on that matter. One of them is that we are taking part as in the court case known as #BartoGate.

Finally, we would like to remember Bartomeu’s words in 2008, and make them our own.  In that ocasion, Bartomeu said to the press “FC Barcelona President (meaning Laporta) should apologize to all members”. We demand him to act in consequence and apologize himself for a number of reasons. We list below some of them:

  • The 15M€ overprice paid during the Griezmann signing, in which, according to press statements at that time, a close collaborator of his oversaw this operation
  • Being responsible of, alongside with Sandro Rosell, FC Barcelona being charged guilty of fiscal fraud, atated by Spains Court, after Neymar’s signing
  • After this episode, by means of former Legal Affairs Chief, Roman Gomez Ponti, that they would: “Clarify responsabilities in this subject. We have a roadmap, which involves approval of this deal (which led Barca to pay milions of euros to exonerate Rosell and Bartomeu)  and after that, the Club will investigate and find people responsible for this mistake. We will tell you about this in the future. This is not over. The Club has suffered losses and it won’t be forgotten” . After more than five years, the former board did nothing to clarify who were guilty in this case
  • Put pressure on the Presidente of the Vote of Censorship Commission last year, with private and public statements that were intented to question his judgement
  • Make every possible effort to delay and cancel the vote of censorship, even involving the Guardia Civil for that, in one of the most embarrasing episodes of the Club’s recent history
  • Over 20 signings made for Barça B, most of them players from Brazil who never player a single minute for the team
  • Hiring a company to monitor social media for the Club, asking them also to created and fed profiles dedicated to insult people related to the Club, including Pep Guardiola, Victor Font, and even players like Gerard Piqué • Not respecting the decision taken in a vote at the extraordinary board meeting in February 2020, following the scandal #Bartogate, where it was decided by majority, to advance the elections
  • Failing to respect the decision takien by the majority of the board in February 2020, when advancing election was decided by the mayority of the board, following the #BartoGate scandal
  • Paying an unexplicable amount of 1,5M€ to Laietà Sports Club, as compensation for alleged inconveniences they might have suffering during the inexistent construction works for the new Palau Blaugrana
  • Holding the biggest responsibility on the departure of the best football player in history. First, for makin him wanting to leave, and then, for him actually leaving due the financial crisis the Club is suffering, and the impossibility of meeting La Liga’s salary cap
  • Making all sorts of player exchanges that were merely accounting operations to offset short-term losses. These operations, altough legal, were of dubious ethical nature, but made a common practice in order to reduce accounted losses

We hope hope we witnessed the last chapter of his disastrous management last Sunday, as our captain and symbol was forced out as a direct result of Bartomeu’s tenure.

It is from this moment that our group expresses and reiterates its availability to rebuild our Club

Cor Blaugrana is officialy part of the #Bartogate case

El Cor Blaugrana is happy to announce today that we have already paid legal fees required by the Court that holds the #BartoGate cause. Therefore, now we can say we are part of the prosecution in this. We, as FC Barcelona’s members and fans, feel harmed by actions taken in this case, which are not appropriate for an entity like ours. That is why we want to know all the responsibilities in this case.

Our involvement in #BartoGate case began in October 2020, when we filed a legal action to take part in the case. After some procedures carried out through our lawyer, Felipe Izquierdo, we decided to pay € 7,000 in legal fees. This amount was imposed by Barcelona’s Court of Justice, and we paid it as we wanted to stay in the case as prosecution. We managed to raise this amount thanks to Cor Blaugrana’s members, and all those who publicly contributed to our open fund. All of them have allowed us to stand as an accusation in this case.

On April 6th 2021, the fee was paid. Two weeks ago, we received the Court’s response, indicating that they accepted us within the cause. We speeded up the process because we want to attend and participate in the statements of Carlos Ibañez (president of i3 Ventures), Roman Gómez Ponti (head of the legal services of FC Barcelona in the Bartomeu stage) and Óscar Grau (CEO of FC Barcelona in the Bartomeu stage). These statements are scheduled for June 7th, 2021.

We are aware that #BartoGate case has brought a significant loss of credibility to the Club, and has greatly damaged its image, especially at international level. As we have explained before, to start a new era at the Club, we believe it is necessary to clean up, and establish responsibilities for everything that has happened in the last ten years. However, our aim goes further than that: we want to help the Blaugrana nation to heal. We strongly believe we all need to know what happen, clarify responsibilities, to make sure it never happens again.

We will then continue our task of doing justice on behalf of FC Barcelona and its members and fans. We will keep you informed of developments in this case.

#BartoGate: Complaint filed against executives

At El Cor Blaugrana we keep fighting for transparency and respect all Barca members deserve from the Club. That is why we are glad to announce we are filling an internal complaint against executives involved in the #BartoGate scandal. Our complaint will be filed against former president Josep Maria Bartomeu, and executives Òscar Grau, the Club’s CEO, Román Gómez Ponti, and Jaume Masferrer, Bartomeu’s advisor. We state they have infringed the Club’s Statutes in a way they might lose their membership. We think the facts around the #BartoGate court case are serious enough to take action. 

In a recent article, that you can read here, we exposed the relationships among those executives and former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu. You can read how they arrived to the Club and how they continued being involved, taking decisions and damaging our Club during their time.

We will send this complaint to the new Disciplinary Committee as soon as it is formed.

COR BLAUGRANA AT THE #BARTOGATE COURT CASE

Apart from filling an internal complaint, we also want to pursue all responsibilities regarding the court case already in place for the #BartoGate scandal. We took part of it in October, and now, in order to continue the process, Spain’s court is asking us for 7.000 €. Here is where we need your help once more!- We need to know what happened, and also explain everything to you!. Please help us out with a donation in the link below.

We would like to extend this invitation to donate to our cause, to everyone who would like to contribute. All donations surpassing our goal will be donated to the Johan Cruyff Foundation.

With these actions, we only pursue to leave this awful chapter behind us. But we think the only way to do that is through justice. FC Barcelona should be rebuilt over transparency and truth!.

If you want to know more about our latests actions, take a look into our Youtube channel, here.

The wall of shame: Rosell’s legacy at FC Barcelona

On 7 March 2021, if the members do not do anything strange, ten infamous years of looting at FC Barcelona will come to an end. The culture of looting, installed in the Club for the past decade, came from feelins of resentment and revenge. We have had 10 years of nepotism and corruption, which continues until 2021. There are numerous ‘executives’ who have gone through different positions at the Club, without professional skills and just because they were friends or associates of Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu. Their influence at the Club have continued long after their respective resignations. And their associates, as is easily proven these days, have continued to use the Club to satisfy their own interests.

Sandro Rosell, Josep Maria Bartomeu, Toni Freixa, Jordi Cardoner and Carles Vilarrubí , at a member's assembly
Sandro Rosell, Josep Maria Bartomeu, Toni Freixa, Jordi Cardoner and Carles Vilarrubí , at a member’s assembly

Let’s take a quick look of who these people are:

1- Joan Carles Raventós: From Rosell’s partner at Bonus Sports Marketing to Barça’s section director. Mr. Raventós went from failure to failure within the Club, being relocated several times as a senior executive. He is currently the general manager of Barça Licensing & Merchandasing, a subsidiary created to manage the retail business. You can read more about his connection with Rosell in this link, as well as how he appointed other associates as Barça executives in 2010.

And here you can read a more detailed profile on Mr. Raventós.

2Lauren Collette: From strategic consultant for Bonus Sports Marketing with Rosell, to Barça’s director of marketing. For 5 years he earned a big salary from the Club. He went on to sign for Roma in 2015. You can find more information about him here.

3- Emili Rossich: “Rossichi, for friends”. He met Sandro Rosell at the the Olympic Committee for the 1992 Games. He was the CEO of FC Barcelona for four years. He was fired by Bartomeu after receiving a hefty compensation of 3M €.

https://www.diariogol.com/futbol/rossich-ha-ganado-mas-de-tres-millones-de-euros-tras-su-paso-por-el-barca_448719_102.html
Emili Rossich
A bit of history about Emili Rossich and others Rosell’s associates at FC Barcelona

4- Carles Rexach + Migueli + Josep Maria Fusté: They gave Rosell their support when he presented to the elections in 2010, and were rewarded named advisors, with a monthly salary of 6000 euros. Their work was attending to VIP boxes at Barca games. 6,000 x 12 x 3 x 10 = 2,160,000 euros is the cost of there 3 advisors at FC Barcelona for 10 years.

This is Sandro Rosell's legacy at FC Barcelona: nepotism and corruption that continues until 2021.
Carles Rexach history at FC Barcelona

5- Andre Cury: Rosell’s friend from his Nike Brasil era. After passing through Traffic (a Brazilian company that sells players with the respective commissions), he entered Barça through the back door when they signed Neymar. One of the most obscure people in the collection of Rosell’s associates, he has been involved in the numerous signings from Brazil FC Barcelona has made, for both first squad and the B team. The biggest scandal he was involved and benefited from, was the contract signed by Rosell in which Cury would get a 3% of commission on the future sale of Neymar. All said and done, Neymar was sold to PSG and Andre Cury got a nice 6 million €. We are not talking about peanuts here.  Here you can read more about that operation.

6- Pere Jansà: Friend of Rosell and head of communication strategy during his 2010 election campaign, he joined FC Barcelona as director of communications, when Sandro won the elections. However, he did not last a year in office, he was quickly relocated to the social area, where he continues in office today with a high salary. He is in charge of mail-in vote for the current elections, as we explained here.

7- Ketty Calatayud: She arrived from newspaper La Vanguardia, to replace Pere Jansà. She turned out to be another notorious failure, with a high executive salary she lasted a little over a year in office. She is still relocated within the Club today, we don’t know exactly what she’s doing at the moment, but she’s probably very well paid.

8- Gerard Guiu: A friend of Rosell, Jaume Collboni and Spanish TV presenter Risto Mejide, he joined president Rosell as chief of staff in 2011. After holding various positions at the Club, he ended up leading the FCB headquarters in New York. He left through the back door at the end of 2017, after  6 years of generous salary.

Rosell and his friends

9- Emili Sabadell: Just like Antoni Rossich, he met Rosell at the COO for Barcelona 92. He was the one who personally fired one of the legends of Barça’s dressing room,  Txema Corbella. He left Barça in 2015 to one of Rosell’s companies, Grifone..

10- Juanjo “Cabeçao” Castillo: Close friend of Sandro Rosell, he went from doing a little bit of everything at BSM, to a little bit of everything at Barça’s presidency. To this day, we do not know if he is still working in the Club, after he starred the unfortunate incident with the alleged purchase of Abidal’s liver (his voice was recorded by Spanish police, saying that the liver was bought by Club’s officials) lamentable incident amb la presumpta compra del fetge d’Abidal.

Abidal’s liver incident, involving Juanjo Castillo

11- Shahe Ohannessian: Friend of Sandro from ESADE glorious college days, he is also the godfather of Rosell’s daughter. Rosell sold his BSM company to him. Ohannessian worked for Barça in order to, allegedly, find sponsors in Africa.

12- Robert Cama: The shadow of Joan Carles Raventós, he was fired from Mediapro for hacking Jaume Roures’email. Surprisingly, Barcelona hired him when he lost his job.

13- Jordi Jacas: A well known chef, owner of the hotel restaurant Molí de l’Escala and friend of Rosell. The board of FC Barcelona went to “summer camps” in early 2012 to his hotel, to prepare the real estate looting, or what it will be known as “Espai Barça”. A few months later, the catering of the stadium VIP boxes was awarded to him. Being Rosell’s friend certainly pays off.

14- Albert Soler: He joined the club with Bartomeu in 2014. He has been a disaster everywhere in the Club where he has been located. He resigned in 2017, and was relocated while retaining senior executive salaries. Another obscure character and very close to Catalan Civil Society (an unionist, far right political entity). Coincidentally or not, the  #BartoGate investigation has put under suspicion that the club might have financed Catalan Civil Society.

15- Jaume Masferrer + Jaume Montané: Jaume Masferrer known by his friend Rosell as “Masfe”,  he had his company located in Rosell’s private address for a period of time. He began ‘working’ for FC Barcelona being in charge of the polling structure known as “Observatori Blaugrana”. Masferrer and his close collaborator Jaume Montané, owner of Time Consultant company, were the ones who ran the polling structure. Masferrer was of great importance with Bartomeu as president, becoming his right hand man and the main pyromaniac master executor of the #BartoGate scandal.

16- Román Gómez Ponti: One of Bartomeu’s people of trust, he also took part in  ‘back stage’, in the demands against Laporta on behalf of the Association for Defense of Member’s Rights, an organization led by Robert Blanch and Vicenç Pla (which, obviously, served obscure interests, and never represented any Barça member). Gomez Ponti joined the club in 2015. His hatred of Cruyffism, Guardiola and Laporta is well documented in his Twitter profile. He filed a complaint to the Guardia Civil, with the only purpose of stopping the vote of no confidence against Bartomeu on october 2020.

17- Joan Manel Trayter: He collaborated with the Association for Defense of Member’s Rights, led by Robert Blanch. In April 2014, he was appointed as Síndic del Soci by Bartomeu’s board. Which means he was the member’s representative to the Club. That didn’t went well.

18- Pau Vilanova: A close friend of Rosell, when Sandro resigned he was the board member who replaced him. His company is located at Rosell’s personal address.

19- David Bellver: Close friend and partner of Rosell. He was appointed as a board member when Jordi Mestre resigned. His company is the organizer of the MIC tournament, where different teams from the Aspire academy from Qatar, have participated. He is considered one of Sandro’s ringleaders on the hidden recreational yacht under the name of Jack Sparrow.

Long story short, the duo Sandro & Barto, Barto & Sandro, believed that Barça was their private property. They did anything they wanted with impunity and no remorse, helped by the silence of the submissive and friendly media. Thanks to the few exceptions of honest media and also a lot of Barça members, some of their wrongdoing have come to light. We only know a small part of what they have done to the Club. They came in 2010 shouting to the members “I will not fail you!”, but they seem to change that for a more suitable statement: “I will f*** you all!”. Hopefully their years will end now.

The (un)touchables

At Barça, sometimes reality is too close to fiction. And one fine example of that, is the current economic situation. A Club that used to make signings for +100M€ each, now doesn’t have enough money to pay salaries!.

Despite popular belief, Bartomeu was not the only one to blame on this. He and his board have resigned. But there are others still around: Carles Tusquets and others, who were members of the Economic Commission for 5 years, during the entire Bartomeu era.

These days, Tusquets is parading himself over Catalan media, acting as if he was an elected president. He is not. At Cor Blaugrana, we demanded him explanations about his role, and the Economic Commission’s role, in the current economic situation. To do so, we sent a letter to the Club, which you can read here.

In this video, we imagine what the situation would be like if we were on a movie.

We hope you enjoy it!

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