Elitist Barca’s biggest sellout
Josep Maria Bartomeu, president of Barcelona, has been explaining his club’s famous slogan. ‘ Mes que
un club does not mean you’re not commercial,’ he says. ‘It means that we’re not only focused on football. We have very special social responsibilities. We are a Catalan club. We represent Catalonia. We show people our language, our culture, our history…’
And what is the first thing noble Barcelona plan to do in service of the region? Drag Girona, one of their Catalan neighbours, half way across the world to play in Florida. This isn’t a Barcelona home game, of course. ‘ I will never accept playing a home fixture outside of our Camp Nou,’ says Bartomeu, pompously. But if there’s a few quid in it, he’ll sell Girona out in a fingersnap.
The rest of Catalonia, too, given the opportunity. Bartomeu (below) is another member of europe’s elite who talks of a continental super league as an idea whose time has come. proud Catalan history, and 118 years of derby matches against espanyol can go hang, if there’s more bunce elsewhere for Barca.
‘ Right now, some competitions and some matches in the domestic leagues and even the Champions League aren’t interesting for many fans,’ Bartomeu insists.
‘Look at the Champions League. When we’re in the knockout stage, from the round of 16 onwards, that is when you directly have the best teams in europe. It’s incredible how many people watch those games. so why not have a new format of the Champions League which could also be a super league within europe?’ In other words, why not shut out all but the elite? No way in for espanyol, Girona, all those lovely Catalans, successful or not. No way in for the clubs of small nations, the regions, the independent enclaves.
Bartomeu pontificates about culture one moment, then advocates the most rampant, empty, commercialism the next. people are losing interest in the Champions League? Maybe it’s because UeFA have allowed Barcelona, and their ilk, to grow to such a size that Bartomeu’s club has reached the quarter-finals minimum for 11 straight seasons. Maybe that is why fans are rejecting the group stages. They’re bored. They know what is going to happen. The protectionism of Barcelona, and others like them, has made it largely a procession to the later knockout stages.
The Champions League has so many second chances for failure, so many advantages for an already privileged elite that it is tantamount to a super league anyway.
Despite this, Barcelona want more. Maybe they are terrified that, when Lionel Messi finally retires, their status might be harder to maintain. They are certainly envious of the wealth the premier League generates, and will sign up for anything that pushes against that. If it means selling Catalan history, culture and their grandmothers down the river, who cares?
so, yes, Barcelona are most certainly more than a club: they’re the biggest bunch of hypocrites on the planet.