"The opposition treats Laporta like the PP treats the PSOE"

Barcelona"The opposition sometimes treats Jan like the PP treats the PSOE," complains a person close to Laporta. "He is now calmer than a few weeks ago. The assembly calmed him down and the team's performance with Hansi Flick, a signing of his, has made him feel even better," he adds with satisfaction. Laporta and his entourage are proud of the tension experienced during the closing of the numbers and the pressure of critical voices between the end of September and the beginning of October. They have several compelling reasons: the delegates approved the accounts by a majority, the Barça men's team has had a string of great joys on the pitch and The club shined again at the Ballon d'Or gala with Aitana Bonmatí at the helm while Real Madrid lost its reputation worldwide. All of this has created such powerful positive emotions among the asshole that right now no red number is capable of lowering. ~BK_LINE_BREAK~ Given this reality, even people in the environment who are critical of Laporta's personalistic way of managing the club admit to ARA that, "despite the fact that when it comes to running Barça he doesn't follow any of the rules set out by business schools, he has an instinct that allows him to land on his feet regularly." That instinct is what led him to choose Hansi Flick over other coaches supposedly more faithful to the Barça style that were recommended to him from inside and outside the club. "It's a success of his, we have to give him credit for that," says the same source. That's why he considers it a shame that "this instinct of Laporta, his ability to inspire the fans and his enormous knowledge of Barça are not accompanied by a proper general manager because it would be an unstoppable duo." ~BK_LINE_BREAK~ "Our objective is not to affect the day-to-day running of the club, we defend the rights of the members," Joan Camprubí, the face of the Som un Clam movement, responded to the ARA when asked what media consequences the fact that on the playing field there are for the voices critical of Laporta's management Barça is putting on one display after another. "We must be with the team and be excited, but that does not cover everything else, that will not stop us from giving our vision of the club. For example, the closing of the numbers had in the assembly more votes against than ever before or that a former treasurer of Laporta [Xavier Sala-i-Martín] voted and spoke during the assembly from the Office of Attention to Barcelonistas (OAB)", he explains. "Comments such as 'they are not here nor are they expected' that Laporta made referring to those of us who are critical of his management denote the way he has of running the club", he adds.

Camprubí has lived from the stands the games of the Barça streak. "It is a shame that Barça only made 400 tickets available to members for the game at the Santiago Bernabéu. I had to buy a ticket through the Real Madrid website because there were no more for Barça members", he complains.

Mobilize the social masses

Ricard Faura, spokesman for the Dignitat Blaugrana opinion group, who filed a legal complaint about the Barçagate case, is in a similar vein. "Just because Barça is doing well in terms of sport doesn't mean that the other complaints we made before the assembly have been resolved. They're all the same as before," says Faura. "But it's true that when the ball goes in, the fan pays less attention to other things and it's harder to mobilise the social mass to be critical of the things that are done wrong as an institution," he admits. ~BK_LINEBREAK~ Faura believes that there are two reasons for this. "One of them is the Catalan attitude, but above all there is a social disconnection from the club that began with the pandemic and has increased with the exile in Montjuïc. Watching home games on television distances you from certain concerns. Last year there would have been a huge swearing-in for Laporta if the games had been played at the Camp Nou," he says. "Now Barça is doing well on the pitch but badly in the offices and we already saw what happened after Bartomeu won the elections in 2015 thanks to the treble," he recalls. ~BK_LINE_BREAK~ The power of Flick

The conclusion is that the ability of the various movements (some of them with aspirations for the next elections) and opinion groups in the Barça environment to attract people when the next international break comes in 10 days, the space of time they usually use to make their public appearances, will be related to whether the ball continues to go in or not this Wednesday against Red Star and on Sunday against Real Sociedad. Flick will continue to decide the Barça mood.