When Barcelona fans think of the name Josep Maria Bartomeu, there are generally not many happy memories evoked. The final years of his tenure were very difficult for the club, who are still in the process of recovering.
Bartomeu resigned in October 2020, and since then, he has chosen not to speak publicly – until now. In recent days, he spoke to Catalunya Radio (via Sport), as he explained why he has spoken this moment to emerge from the shadows.
“I have been silent from the moment I resigned in October 2020 because, once the president does the job he is supposed to do, it is better to take a back seat. But it is true that lately, both because of the inheritance, after five years there is still a lot of talk about me, and because of the campaign, my name has come up again. I thought that maybe it’s my time to explain myself because it’s the way for someone to understand what happened and that famous issue of inheritance, which is not as serious as it is said.”
Bartomeu was involved in multiple controversies during his six-year spell as Barcelona president – most notably, Barcagate and the Negreira case. Despite this, he maintains that his tenure was not bad, as he took the opportunity to list the good things he was involved in.
“It was not a bad tenure. My legacy has good things and bad things, but that is totally conditioned by Covid. At that time, Barça was a club that was in a good sporting and economic situation, growing and with income. Covid causes income to fall and, in the years 19/20 and 20/21, Barça was affected by €500m losses, which caused the club’s economy to suffer the consequences.
“Being president of Barça is not easy. Throughout the stage we did a lot of good things. When we talk about heritage, we don’t talk about heritage: we built the Johan Cruyff stadium, we built La Masia, we built many sports centres, we bought land, we started to move forward with the Espai Barça with permits and architecture, the sporting heritage with many titles.”
Bartomeu’s re-emergence from the shadows comes just after Joan Laporta was re-elected as Barcelona president. He admitted that he expected his successor to win the vote against Victor Font, while he also gave him an ounce of credit.
“Yes, I clearly expected him to win. What we Barça members want is a football team that wins, that we like, and the most normal thing is that those in power continue. The best thing that has been done in recent years is to sign Flick and put together a team that, I must say, is also part of the legacy, because of this current squad of 23 players, 10 or 11 come from La Masia. Flick has done a great job and is a very good choice on Laporta’s part, but I didn’t like everything else.”
