By Andrew Warshaw
October 28 – Under pressure from legions of fans ahead of a vote of no-confidence, Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu took the ultimate step and fell on his sword on Tuesday – but not before eye-catching revelations that he had accepted proposals for the club to join a European Super League.
A combination of a much-publicised fallout with Lionel Messi, Barca’s first campaign without silverware since 2007-08 and losses of €97 million for last season finally tipped Bartomeu over the edge as he threw in the towel after six years at the helm and thus avoided the vote that was scheduled for the coming weeks.
Bartomeu and his board had sought to delay the vote, citing health concerns for the club’s more than 110,000 members amid the coronavirus pandemic, but local officials had authorised the ballot – which would almost certainly have gone against him – to take place.
As a result, the entire board of directors stepped down with him.
Bartomeu had been due to leave anyway next March having served the maximum two terms as president, but wanted to go on his terms.
In an attempt to save face, he said he had no option but to resign in order to protect peoples’ health.
“I am here today to inform you of my resignation and that of the rest of the Board of Directors. This is a well-considered, calm, consensual and collective decision by my fellow directors who have accompanied me over recent years in a loyal and committed fashion with regards to the project and the Club, and who have made so many sacrifices thinking always of Barca,” the club’s official website quoted Bartomeu as saying.
“We have to act responsibly and for that reason we cannot hold the vote of censure in the current circumstances,” he declared.
“We cannot nor want to put ourselves in a position of having to choose between protecting people’s health and exercising the right to vote.”
More than 20,000 Barcelona members, easily above the required number, had signed a petition for Bartomeu and his board to face a motion of censure.
The petition was drawn up not long after Messi asked to leave the club following that humiliating 8-2 Champions League loss to Bayern Munich, only for the Argentine superstar to reluctantly change his mind rather than enter a legal battle with his beloved Barca.
Nevertheless after staging something of a u-turn, Messi denounced Bartomeu in a September interview, when he described his stewardship of the club as a “disaster”.
Bartomeu’s decision to stand down came just weeks after appointing Ronald Koeman as head coach under whom Barca have won only two of their opening five league games and lost 3-1 at home to arch-rivals Real Madrid on Saturday.
Arguably as newsworthy as his somewhat expected decision to quit was his disclosure about a Super League.
Only last week reports suggested that another audacious challenge to the Champions League was being plotted behind the scenes involving Europe’s biggest clubs, altering the entire landscape of the game at elite level and this time apparently with FIFA’s backing.
Bartomeu said he accepted a proposal for Barcelona to play in “a future European Super League” which “would guarantee the financial stability of the club”.
But La Liga president Javier Tebas quickly responded to Bartomeu’s claims in no uncertain terms by saying it “confirms his ignorance about the football industry”.
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