It cannot be said at all that Joan Laporta’s second stage at the head of the club is being characterized by stability in the offices. In the three years that have passed (it was on March 7) since he won the elections, changes and changes of direction have been the order of the day. The latest resignation was that of the economic vice president, Eduard Romeu, who cited professional reasons, but the bleeding goes back a long way.
In fact, even before Laporta took office. Because the one who had to be the strong man of the club’s finances, Jaume Giró, resigned from being part of the board. At the time he hid behind professional reasons that forced him to spend a lot of time in London. In practice, weeks later he was appointed Minister of Economy of the Generalitat.
At that time Laporta was talking about creating a great professional structure that would lead the club with high-level executives. Like the one who was appointed general director, Ferran Reverter. But he lasted just over half a year in office. In February 2022 he announced his resignation with the classic “personal and professional reasons.” The truth is that Reverter was not comfortable with Laporta’s presidential style and had shown disagreements with the board over the Spotify sponsorship agreement.
No one replaced him and Laporta changed the philosophy by saying that Barça could be run as a family. His circle of trust was reduced, with those closest to him such as the sports vice president, Rafael Yuste, the institutional one, Elena Fort, or the advisor Enric Masip.
After Reverter, over time, there have been more marches. Espai Barça has been a focus of leaks and controversies. This was the case of Ramon Ramírez, director of Heritage and Espai Barça. He left theoretically for a professional issue linked to his wife’s food business, but also because he did not agree with some changes introduced by Laporta. Such as appointing Joan Sentelles, former director of Reus, as responsible for “the technical and contracting field” and Àlex Barbany as commercial responsible for the project. The aforementioned Barbany would also later leave the club.
Jordi Llauradó, manager responsible for Espai Barça, also jumped ship. He resigned from his position on the same day that the board chose the Turkish company Limak for the reconstruction of the Camp Nou. Shortly afterwards he also left the board.
In this area, a couple of weeks ago there was the departure of Maribel Meléndez, the club’s corporate director, which was a bet by Ferran Reverter.
Espai Barça has not been the only plot with numerous changes in the entity. For example, Jordi Camps only lasted three months as commercial director due to discrepancies in the club’s roadmap.
Not even La Masia, the cradle of talent, has maintained stability. When Laporta returned to the club, his director was Xavi Martín, who stopped being director in November 2021. He was replaced by Mike Puig, who was removed from his position last August.
Franc Carbó, management director of the Football Area, who left with Ramon Planes a few months ago for Saudi Arabia, did not continue either.
The same happened with Markel Zubizarreta, architect of the Barça women’s champion who decided to leave for the Spanish Federation amid budget cuts.
On other occasions it has been Laporta who has determined the variations, such as in the area most linked to the structure of the first team such as the entry of Deco as sporting director and the departure of Mateu Alemany and Jordi Cruyff.
Therefore, the second Laporta era continues in the line of the first when managerial crises and changes were frequent. Who doesn’t remember the internal struggles with Sandro Rosell or Josep Maria Bartomeu?
