Barça, the preferred emotional dependency of Catalans

BarcelonaFollowing Barça news is like a drug. This writer has been both consuming and distributing it for nineteen years, six of them at the newspaper ARA, which, as a fundamental part of the Catalan media landscape, has not hesitated to actively participate in this market of emotions, victories, defeats, fires, and fleeting moments.

Since its founding, ARA has aimed to be a benchmark for Barça fans. Its pages have pulsed (and continue to pulse) with this in mind from day one, aware that, as Jorge Valdano says in reference to football, Barça is, for millions of people, the most important of the things that aren't important.

Barça makes us hug strangers and increases the birth rate in moments of greatest joy. Conversely, it also outrages us, makes us lose our appetite, and can even drag us into the most visceral and irrational hatred (especially and paradoxically among ourselves). On the pitch, on the court, and in the offices, Barça gives us topics of conversation, connects us, and distances us. No social network is as addictive with the Blaugrana colors.

ARA has been incredibly fortunate to have been born and raised alongside the best Barça team in history. Just three days ago, a crank In José Mourinho's Real Madrid, the aftermath of Artur Mas's first election victory was relegated to the front page. The iconic photograph of Xavi Hernández, scorer of the first of the five goals on that orgasmic night, clutching the badge in fury, devoured the political and economic agenda of a Tuesday in late November.

There was nothing more important to talk about than a team that played like angels between 2008 and 2012. No topic overshadowed Pep Guardiola's masterful leadership and Leo Messi's unique talent in defeating a Madrid side that, during those years, would take the rivalry to such lamentable extremes as the most lamentable of all. Tito Vilanova. The governance of an entire country could wait. The massive, intergenerational madness for Barça could not. It is no coincidence, as former regional minister Raül Romeva pointed out a few months ago, that The Barcelona president receives more honors than the president of the Generalitat when he travels the world.

The point is that since that resounding 5-0 defeat, Barcelona fans have experienced 15 years of supreme intensity. The fact that the club has become more insular alongside its international expansion hasn't prevented Catalan and national media outlets from supplying countless stories to an audience as large as it is voracious. Because, as a long-time member of the Barça communications department—an organization with more financial and human resources than most newsrooms in the city—often says, "At Barça, everything is news."

This means that what often happens in matches only serves as fodder for the debates (or "weekly crises," as a newcomer to the scene like Tata Martino aptly described them) that provide the basis for editorials, opening segments, or panel discussions. "The game is becoming less and less important," Javier Mascherano, another Argentine Barcelona fan, aptly pointed out, surprised by the constant stream of controversy, whether in the form of refereeing conspiracy theories, bombastic statements, failed transfers, or legal battles with an indicted president. The emotional dependence extends far beyond the 90 minutes.

A stadium half-renovated and a new idol to love

However, while Sandro Rosell, the most voted-for Barcelona president in history, resigned over the Neymar case and went to prison for crimes that couldn't be proven, Barça kept winning. After the 2011 Champions League, Messi and company lifted the 2015 trophy, an insufficient haul that the best footballer in history compensated for with Ballon d'Or awards and also with La Liga titles, Copa del Rey trophies, and Super Cups that Barcelona fans didn't appreciate because Ernesto Valverde's approach wasn't attractive enough. That's just how we are.

Without Guardiola's influence on the bench, Barça from 2015 to 2020 can be explained through the work of the Argentine, the beginning and end of an institution that collapsed with the arrival of COVID-19. In the midst of the pandemic, Messi, fed up with losing in Europe, requested to leave via burofax to Josep Maria Bartomeu, a president who compensated for his institutional weakness with unpayable contracts. Suddenly, Barcelona fans went from half-heartedly celebrating league titles to mobilizing like never before to oust the board with the stadium closed and the club on the verge of bankruptcy. Messi also helps explain Joan Laporta's return to the presidential box. During his campaign, the Barcelona lawyer promised to renew Messi's contract with a roastBut a few months later, pressured by his backers and a victim of improvisation and a disastrous legacy, he resigned himself to his traumatic departure. Those days of August 2021 still resonate today. In fact, they are almost the main threat to the omnipotent Laporta in the face of a reelection bid, for which he is using levers of power, precautionary measures, and Masia, with Lamine Yamal as the main exponent and Hansi Flick as a personal success. There are still successes to celebrate, disappointments to endure, and even more "weekly crises" to consume.