New president to bring hope of recovery at crisis-hit Barca

MADRID: The week that began with the former president in prison will end with a new president in power as Barcelona hope Sunday’s elections can be a turning point for a club seemingly locked in crisis.

Joan Laporta, Victor Font and Toni Freixa were all at Camp Nou on Wednesday to see Barca stage a dramatic comeback against Sevilla, overturning a 2-0 deficit in extra-time to reach the final of the Copa del Rey.

But whoever is voted in by Barcelona’s 110,000 members has a much tougher ‘remontada’ to pull off, faced with a club in crippling debt, whose greatest player could be about to leave and whose reputation has been repeatedly dragged through the mud.

Rock bottom perhaps came on Monday when the club’s former president Josep Maria Bartomeu, forced to resign in October, was arrested, spending the night behind bars after Catalan police raided offices at Camp Nou as part of an investigation into corruption and misuse of funds.

“For the image of the club it is not good,” said coach Ronald Koeman on Tuesday.

It could also have been last August when Lionel Messi, who joined Barcelona as a 13-year-old boy and became their greatest ever, tried to leave for free, citing a clause in his contract and a club that had “no project or anything for a long time”.

Or even a month before, when they were demolished by Bayern Munich, an 8-2 defeat in the Champions League the club’s worst ever loss in Europe, an epic humiliation made more deflating only by the fact so many had expected it.

There was also a first season without a trophy in 12 years, consecutive losses to Real Madrid, public rows over pay cuts and six board members who resigned. In any other year, they all could have been definitive failures.

‘OUTDATED LEADERSHIP’: “Nobody can deny the current crisis is the result of bad government and outdated leadership,” wrote Ernest Folch on Thursday in Diario Sport. “Barca can finally wipe the slate clean.”

For Laporta, Font or Freixa there will be no quick fix, no sponsorship deal or game-changing signing that can wash over a crisis caused by years of mismanagement, misspending and mistrust.

There could also be more upheaval to come. With a new president, Koeman’s job as coach immediately becomes uncertain, despite the Dutchman overseeing a broadly encouraging season that could still end with victory in the Copa del Rey and perhaps La Liga, if Atletico Madrid lose their nerve.