Lluís Canut: "I am convinced that we will also win the Parkinson's match"

BarcelonaHis latest book is called La vida en directe (Columna), but Lluís Canut looks back and explains his prolific career as a sports journalist, first linked to basketball and then to football. The book settles a few outstanding scores and also explains the Parkinson's diagnosis he received about ten years ago.

Without anaesthetic: basketball or football?

— Home, this is like having to choose between your father and your mother...!

But if you had to choose, at gunpoint...

— Satisfaction, both have given me. Now, if you put a knife to my throat, I would choose basketball because I've had more proximity with the basketball players than with the football players. I've had a lot of feeling with some footballers, but the relationship with the basketball players has been more intimate. Now, if we look at significance, football and the four years of the Dream Team would weigh heavily.

In the book you show yourself critical of the excess of opinion.

— It is good that there is opinion, but always based on information. And, unfortunately, that is not the most common case.

How do you consider the Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation has treated you?

— Well, I can't complain. I've been fortunate to do my job at the most important media outlets such as Catalunya Ràdio, Ràdio Barcelona or TV3, the television of our country. Could it have given me more? Well, probably, but I also have to be grateful for all these years I've been able to work there.

I was asking you because in the book you narrate episodes such as one day you are summoned, with the resignation letter in hand, demanding that you lower your salary by half or quit.

— That was grotesque... Without any prior notice or negotiation, they handed me the letter saying that if I didn't lower my salary, I could grab a cardboard box and go home. I was stunned. Fortunately, I was able to turn it around. It's true that that moment was very, very, very regrettable.

What do you attribute it to?

— I think this gentleman, who was the head of human resources at that time, did it almost without relying on anyone and without the director's knowledge.

And I was also asking you because, in the first paragraph of the first chapter, you start by explaining the anguish that the lack of communication with the Head of Sports about the continuation of the program Efectivament causes you. And further on you complain about another head of the department, years later, who sidelined you when you got a great interview with Joan Gaspart.

— In the course of these thirty-seven years that I have been at TV3, I don't know how many department heads there have been, but not all of them have been the best of the best. There have been great heads, like Tatxo Benet or Josep Maria Farràs, who were from the profession, but there have also been those who were not and they had put them there and knew very little about directing and also lacked sufficient knowledge.

And how did they get there, then?

— Okay, for convenience.

Political conveniences?

— Political, personal... Conveniences of the moment. It must have interested the house that there were those people in positions for which they were not prepared.

There is a four-year period that encompasses four different programs. They even cancel shows that have a very good audience.

— I remember, for example, the program L'entorn. After breaking the audience record with 25% when Sandro Rossell arrived, they informed me that I would not continue the following season. That is, something incomprehensible. What happens is that at that moment I could be a nuisance, because I was not part of the group close to the new president, who was Joan Laporta, and the one in charge, to avoid problems, decided to remove me from the front line of information and have me do a more entertainment program.

Has TV3 identified too much with Barça?

— I don't think so. One of the great integrating elements of this country is Barça. People who have come from outside and who have wanted to integrate have done so mainly in defense of Barça, and it is an integration in defense of the language. Thanks to Barça's matches in Catalan on TV3, many people have had access to our language.

Espanyol or Penya spectators might see it differently. You yourself have had to face criticism from their fans.

— But in the end, you have to lean towards what the majority demands. This doesn't mean we sideline other teams, but rather that when we cover Barça's matches, we go all out.

In the last fifteen years, sports rights have been gradually moving towards payment. Does it make sense then to maintain such a large Sports department today?

— Home, now it's difficult for us to access the Champions League, but from time to time opening the football window for Cup matches or other matches that have an audience, I think it's worth it, I think it pays off.

I'm asking you differently. Is the Sports department now underutilized?

— Well, what surprised us is that bets have been made on outsiders without first thinking about the people from home, about the youth academy. Esport3 has created a lot of talent and our own talent should be boosted first.

I understand you are talking about the conflict between Gerard Romero's Fan zone and Xavier Valls' Onze, who have been relegated later so as not to compete with it.

— Well, it could be a case, right? But not because I don't consider Gerard Romero's product to be good: it's a different product from what we were doing. Now, just because an outside bet is being promoted, that doesn't mean what's in-house should be set aside. Xavier Valls' program is very well established within the Esport3 lineup and could easily go to TV3.

In any case, with the resources it has, does the Esport3 channel do what it should do?

— I believe it does more than it could, thanks to the professionalism and talent of the people in the Department, who make it move forward despite the lack of resources.

In the book, you quote Joan Gaspart's phrase: “As long as I have television on my side, I piss on the press”. Does television still hold this power?

— Well, we are talking about a time when there was only one television, which was Televisió Espanyola. The phrase was given because an interview with Hansi Krankel, who was the first major signing of the Núñez era, was given exclusively on TVE, and the rest of the media were marginalized and, with a certain tone of arrogance, Gaspart said this.

But do you think we could now say that they also piss on television now, because they already have social networks to reach the public?

— Home, I don't think this is the case either, is it? They are two absolutely different worlds, that of conventional television and social networks. In fact, when elements of social networks have been transferred to the television scene, it has been seen that it lacked the level to give a certain quality to its product.

I said that because journalists now don't have access to the players like before and the message is controlled from social media.

— What surprises me is that Barça footballers are seen more on El hormiguero than on Gol a gol. I don't quite understand it. It seems as if they see us as an enemy and they prefer to go and have a few laughs on programs of this nature. With all due respect to El hormiguero, TV3's Gol a gol should be the main space for Barça players, as it used to be.

We are doing the interview the day after the elections at Barça. How do you value it?

— The drive and charisma that Joan Laporta has are unbeatable in circumstances like these, and in the debates it was seen that in a head-to-head no one is capable of surpassing his communicative ability. After the work he has done during these five years, the Barça member –who is very conservative– has opted for continuity because he greatly values what Laporta has done.

Are these good results for the club, then?

— Yes, they are good results for the club. I already said that what we should avoid, apart from the dirty play, which unfortunately there has been, is that every time there is an election and there is a face-to-face, the club becomes socially fragmented. And I believe that these results, rather than fragmenting, will unite the club more because they give Laporta legitimacy to govern in a comfortable way. Furthermore, we must not forget that it is Laporta's last term, that he has been able to win three elections very clearly, and that after this term he will no longer be able to run again. This gives him a legitimacy that he surely would not have had without much closer results.

Which Barça president has made it most difficult for you?

— I have had a good relationship with most of the presidents of Barça. I can't complain in that regard.

And, regarding hobbies?

— I have never run so much in my life as that day when, leaving the Palau Blaugrana, the dark-skinned men [the nudist praetorian guard who received that nickname because they were in the sun all day] attacked me. And also at the final of a match on the court of Joventut de Badalona, where Jordi Robirosa and I were surrounded in the booth. We did not leave that place until a couple of police officers came to protect us. We left the Penya pavilion as if we were criminals. The tone should be lowered. Sport is important, but it is not a transcendent thing. As Valdano used to say, football is, of the most important things, the least important.

At that moment do you suffer or are you part of the grace of it all?

— No, no: you suffer. When you see a hundred people surrounding your transmission booth... it's not very funny!

But, despite everything, have you ever thought: listen, I'm retiring to the comfort of an office, of the newsroom.

— No, no. It would be to give in. Since I'm driven, I've always thought I had to maintain the tone and line that I believe should be maintained.

Talking about basketball. Barça has gone from having a more or less assured spot in the Final Four to not knowing this year if they will reach the playoffs. What future do you foresee for the section?

— I wish him a good future from the moment he is part of this project for a future European division of the NBA. And the European NBA would not be understood without the presence of Barça, as the great brand it is. The economic situation is critical and it has had to be cut back. I believe we should do as in football and look back to the youth academy because the golden age of Barça, like that of Joventut in its time, was when it retained home talent: Epi, Solozábal, Sibilio, De la Cruz and company, always reinforced by a good pair of foreigners. Instead, now Barça is continuously signing new foreign players whose names you don't even learn by heart in the end. However, the problem is that when a player with a bit of talent emerges, they are quickly taken to the United States. It has happened, for example, to Joventut.

Two years ago you made public that you had Parkinson's in an interview with Albert Om for ARA. Has your life changed, the fact of explaining the diagnosis, which you had kept hidden for eight years?

— I am happy to have made my Parkinson's public, not for myself, but to help raise visibility for the disease. And it has been the fundamental axis for moving this book forward. When I was diagnosed with Parkinson's, I knew practically nothing about it beyond the iconic image of what has been my great sports idol, Muhammad Ali, at the Atlanta Olympic Games and that torch about to light the cauldron with his trembling hands. I felt the need to give it maximum visibility, as many Parkinson's patients asked me to. This is my fight at the moment, and I am convinced that we will also win this match.

Sometimes, such health setbacks make us review life and sometimes in a positive way. Has it happened to you?

— Above all, it has led me to realize that life is very beautiful, that we have to fight for it, try to make it the best possible, and above all, I fight so that the illness does not affect me in my day to day.

What idea would you like to change or convey about what many people have of illness?

— Josep Ramon Correal, who was director of the Tarragona newspaper, told me: “Lluís, we will not die of Parkinson's, but we will die with Parkinson's”. I keep this in mind to try to make the disease more bearable, so that it does not affect my daily life and I can live a normal life until the drug that can solve it can finally be discovered. I find it strange and surprising that a cure for Parkinson's has not yet been found. My neurologist tells me to be patient, to try to prevent the disease from progressing further than it should, and to hope that a cure will be discovered in three or four years. The only thing I would ask is that many media outlets that focus on other things would dedicate themselves to the research of these diseases.

How is your day-to-day life, if you want to talk about it?

— My day to day is normal: I already said that I was retiring, but not withdrawing, so I continue to be aware of my collaborations, and that means I have to be aware of current sports, football, Barça... It keeps me entertained! And I really enjoyed writing this book with Victor Lavagnini.

Next January you will turn seventy. Will you continue working, then?

— I will continue working as long as I feel strong, eager, and enthusiastic to do so.

And do you have all three things?

— Yesterday I was up late following the Barcelona elections and receiving a lot of affection from people. The truth is that all this recognition fills me up.

Before you were talking about being friends with the players. Is it possible to do news journalism and, at the same time, cultivate friendships in the locker room?

— I have done a type of journalism that many miss now and that we could call proximity journalism. I had a lot of interaction with athletes, but they always knew I was a journalist, and that anything they could tell me, unless it was off the record, I could use. Aíto García Reneses used to tell me: you take advantage of the friendship you have with the players! And I used to tell him: yes, but Aíto, that's not easy. It's not a gifted friendship, but a worked-for one, because if you let them down one day, you've lost it.

And what was the way to do it?

— One of the things that used to foster this closeness with athletes was going out at night. Now, people don't go out at night like they used to. It's also true that now I don't go out at night like I used to, to say I never go out at night! But before, you would go out at night and go to fashionable places, like Up&Down, Metamorfosis, Fibra Òptica... and you would always run into an athlete.

This is lost...

— Nowadays, athletes go out less and have parties at their own homes, private ones, because for them, with all the mobile phone cameras, it's a risk to go out at night. They can compromise you. This closeness that we had in my time with athletes was fundamental. We went out at night and there you could access a certain intimacy and exclusivity in their news.

Going out because of work, or did you already like it?

— No, no, I used to go out because I enjoyed the nightlife more than the players themselves! Now, there was a colleague from the newspaper Sport who boasted about going out every night of the year.

Wow. And how are you?

— The poor man was buried.