Barcelona presidential pre-candidate takes shots at Laporta – ‘At that time, they entered to serve the club…’ | OneFootball

With under six months remaining for Barcelona’s presidential elections, the Catalan media is again busy hyping up the various contenders vying for Joan Laporta’s place at the club.

The current manager, seemingly, has done a decent job at undoing the damage done by the previous board. However, there are also several grey areas that fans and stakeholders demand transparency on that have not been provided.

At this point, the election thus seems to be a level playing field with nothing guaranteed and competitors see a chance to take Laporta down and form a new board at the helm.

Laporta’s competitor speaks

Earlier today, Xavi Vilajoana, one of the former members of Joan Laporta’s team, spoke to SPORT as part of his interaction with the media.

After all, he too has presented his pre-candidacy to fight in the upcoming elections.

He commented on how Laporta has changed since the time he knew him, and how the current president is no longer the same person he was in his first term.

“There is a lot of difference between the Laporta of now and that of the first term when I worked with him.”

“At that time, they entered to serve the club, and [now] this has gone to a second, third, or fourth place in terms of priorities. It’s the most important difference, no doubt,” he added.

He was then asked to elaborate on his statement that one must become the Barcelona president to serve the club and not oneself, and he once again reiterated that he meant it in Laporta’s example.

Big difference between Laporta’s past and present tenure, says Vilajoana. (Photo by Eric Alonso/Getty Images)

“Yes. When someone doesn’t count, doesn’t explain, decisions are made without taking the partner into account. Opaque business. Explanations are demanded.”

“When everything is so opaque, experience tells me that it gives reason to think,” he added.

He then explained that his point was only in terms of being transparent about any decisions made, irrespective of whether they were right or wrong.

“I’m not talking about successes and mistakes. But you can explain it, we made that decision for one thing or another. It’s impossible to ask someone not to make a mistake.”

Finally, he called Hansi Flick’s signing the only positive takeaway from Laporta’s current presidency.

“Beyond signing Flick, honestly. I think that’s the only good thing he’s done. If we analyse the rest, everything that drives the club, you can say whatever you want, but the numbers are what they are.”

He then lashed out at Laporta’s management of Barcelona’s finances, the levers activated, and the failure to completely restore financial normalcy.

“The fact is that even after selling assets that already existed in the club, generated by whoever, there are still accumulated losses of €280 million.”

“If they hadn’t sold existing assets, the losses would be €1 billion,” he added.