Joan Laporta will be president of Barça again. He returns to the position with the clear endorsement of the members, who have opted more for what Laportismo represents in terms of pride and self-esteem than for its program of government, which was vague. Emotionality and character have won over rationality, which has remained in the background. In the world of football, despite the professionalisation of both economic and sporting management, despite the importance of business, feelings continue to rule among supporters. The partners and the fans of Barça are not an exception. In campaign, Laporta has limited himself to not make blunders, to make people forget his more frivolous profile, to leave in the background his frustrated political adventures and to appeal, instead, to the epic feats of its first mandate. And he has succeeded: he has won more than 50% of the votes, an undisputed victory. His main rival, Victor Font, despite the years of preparation and the strength of his club model, was prepared to compete with a continuist candidate of the failed board of the now investigated Bartomeu, but not to face a candidate as charismatic as Laporta.

The Mossos d'Esquadra (the Catalan police) believe that the disloyal administration of Josep Maria Bartomeu in relation with the Barçagate case is demonstrated, but they continue investigating why such a high amount of money was paid to I3 Ventures. They suspect that "managers, administrators, workers, or collaborators" could have received "considerations" for awarding contracts to this company. If one line of investigation is to know if the protagonists of the alleged crime would have committed it for personal interests, a second line would have a political interpretation.

In the last months of Josep Maria Bartomeu's mandate the atmosphere in the offices of the Camp Nou was "unbreathable", according to some workers of the club close to the management. "When questions were asked about those invoices, we were told there was nothing to say as they came straight from the top", confess those in charge of the areas where invoices were fractioned to avoid scrutiny from the club's control commission. In addition, when it became known that the case was being investigated, there was pressure on workers not to talk to the press and help "defend the image of the club". In reality, it was all about trying to protect the people who have ended up accused of misuse of funds and corruption.

Barçagate assails Josep Maria Bartomeu, who appears as a possible ideologist of the whole plot investigated in a report of the Mossos d'Esquadra that is part of the investigation of the case. The ex-president of Barça spent the night of Monday to Tuesday detained in the police station of Les Corts, alone in a prison cell, and was transferred in the morning to the Ciutat de la Justícia, where he refused to declare on the advice of his lawyers, since they had not been able to consult the investigation. 

Josep Maria Bartomeu, ex-president of Barça, and Jaume Masferrer, ex-chief of the club presidency's cabinet, are awaiting a court order after spending the night in Les Corts police station. The two have invoked their right not to testify and have been released with charges. This implies that the two remain under investigation for two alleged crimes of unfair administration and corruption between individuals as a result of the hiring of company I3Ventures, in exchange for one million euros, to create states of opinion on social networks favourable to the management of Bartomeu's board and contrary to players like Gerard Piqué or Leo Messi, presidential candidates Victor Font and Joan Laporta or businessmen like Jaume Roures.

Monday's image of the Catalan police entering the Camp Nou offices to conduct searches while arresting Josep Maria Bartomeu and three senior officials - Oscar Grau, Jaume Masferrer and Roman Gomez Ponti - over the so-called Barçagate scandal is the culmination of a decade of infamy for Barça at an institutional level. It all started with the liability action against the previous board. Then came the conviction for two tax crimes in the signing of Neymar. A sentence, let's remember, that served to remove the top leaders from the equation and find the institution guilty. And finally, without going into the rest of the shameful situations experienced in recent years, this latest episode for alleged crimes of misuse of funds and corruption.

Barça is going through one of the worst moments in its history. The last years have been marked by a progressive degradation in all fields: in the sport field, in the economic field and in the no less important one of the values associated to the institution. Barçagate exploding again suddenly in the home stretch of the most atypical electoral campaign the club has ever had -because of how it has come by and the pandemic-, only reinforces this plummet in the prestige of a club affected by corruption and foul play by the management. A lousy management has squandered the sporting successes and the civic and social credibility. Barça has gone from touching the sky to being immersed in a deep and painful crisis. The end of Josep Maria Bartomeu is the end of an era, of a generation of leaders had the world at their feet and have ended in the worst way: the arrest of the former president and those who were his three trusted executives, interrogated by the Mossos throughout the day on charges of misuse of funds and corruption, illustrates the descent into hell. The Barça is touching rock bottom and it does so coinciding with critical moments for Catalan society.

Ysterday, the Catalan police arrested former president of Barça Josep Maria Bartomeu, former head of the club's presidency cabinet Jaume Masferrer, current CEO Òscar Grau, and head of legal Roman Gomez Ponti, as part of the investigation over "Barçagate". The investigating court number 13 of Barcelona provincial court involves them in an alleged crime of misuse of funds and corruption between individuals as a result of hiring company I3Ventures, in exchange for €1m, to create states of opinion on social networks favourable to the management of Bartomeu's board and contrary to players like Gerard Piqué or Leo Messi, Barça presidential candidates Víctor Font and Joan Laporta, or businessmen such as Jaume Roures.