Lies with patatas bravas

BarcelonaIt was a Tuesday in June—the 17th, to be exact. The first wave of heat was roasting the hundreds of workers on the Camp Nou construction site. Cranes, cement blocks, scrap metal and questions. A few meters away, in the 1899 Auditorium, Joan Laporta was addressing the Blaugrana Senate, an archaic body redolent of Brummel and naiveté. In that uncritical context, the Barça president stated that the club had already returned to the famous 1:1 rule of the fair play financial and fueled the signing of Nico Williams (!). Not only did his nose not grow, but his closest collaborators argued that he had lied to the group of nonagenarians because the reinstatement of the 1:1 rule was practically a given. Weeks later, Laporta would participate in a campaign to announce, with great fanfare, his return to Camp Nou on the day of the Gamper. The potatoes, bravas, please.

In this film of unfulfilled expectations, Camp Nou and the fair play Financial difficulties go hand in hand. If Barça is on the verge of closing a new summer transfer window, which is overcrowded and fraught with difficulties, it is largely because it has failed to launch a key business in the remodeled stadium: the famous seats. VIP, the star carom to save the day with Dani Olmo in January in collaboration with the CSD. It was especially curious to see how on the day of the Gamper match at the Johann Cruyff stadium, 475 seats had been covered with black pads to demonstrate that they could also operate outside of a Camp Nou that is increasingly fading from the immediate horizon. The reality is that, with the League already underway, Members and season ticket holders still have no idea where and under what conditions they will be able to follow the team.. Maneuvering with the seats VIPHowever, they do give you plenty of clues as to what's behind the smoke.

With no quiet summer, the board has ended up having to endorse (yes, again!) a 7 million euro wage gap to cover the deadlock in registering players. As if that weren't enough, the head of the professional sections, Xavi O'Callaghan, contradicted Laporta and explained that the culprits of the mess weren't sections like basketball or women's football, but, above all, the folders derived from men's football. Of all the absurdity at the top of the club, which has become routine, only the sporting director, Deco, has been spared, who has taken it upon himself (yes, he has) to do the required homework to make room for the new contracts. Thank goodness Hansi Flick has the patience of a saint, because lies with potatoes are becoming increasingly difficult to swallow.