Laporta's most resounding blunder

BarcelonaLaporta's most resounding blunder regarding the Espai Barça wasn't his appearance in the announcement of a return to the Camp Nou for the Joan Gamper Trophy, which never happened. Laporta's most resounding blunder regarding the Espai Barça took place on October 8, 2021, before the Camp Nou renovations had even begun. The Barça president then informed RAC1 that Barça's men's first team would be going "for a year to play at the Johan Cruyff stadium, with 40,000 or 50,000 spectators."

Those statements made more than one architect swallow their gum. From a logistical standpoint, the impossibility of carrying out Laporta's plan was clear. There were many reasons, and the first was that the B-23 motorway runs very close to the Johan Cruyff Stadium, which blocks any attempt at a megalomaniacal expansion. As life goes, this Sunday Barça, against Valencia, will finally play an official match in this stadiumBut with 6,000 spectators, the capacity for which it was created.

Only Laporta knows why he made statements like those. Did he improvise them, or did someone advise him to do so? On what grounds and with what purpose? Whatever the case, since then, kilos and kilos of information and unfulfilled promises from Laporta's board regarding the return to Camp Nou have been piling up in a landfill. Was it necessary to pressure themselves to set a November 2024 date as the earliest return date? Was it necessary to make the same mistake this summer ahead of the Gamper Stadium? Is the constant uncertainty of not knowing where Barça will play its next home game necessary? Members and supporters would have understood more flexible return dates. The problem began when the board's main argument for choosing Limak as the construction company was its speed.

Continued failures to comply create frustration for members and fans. And frustration usually goes two ways. The first is the one we've been experiencing up until now: embrace resignation and have the patience that the return to Camp Nou will one day, sooner or later, become a reality. This path will be the majority's, especially if Hansi Flick's team keeps getting the ball in. But frustration also has the capacity to turn into anger if the sporting environment isn't so favorable. Meanwhile, institutional vice president Elena Fort ruled out on SER Catalunya that Limak would receive any penalty for the delays because "it has no direct impact." So, who is responsible?