History is written by the victors.
What Ter Stegen, Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Alba, Busquets, Rakitic, Iniesta, Neymar, Suarez and Messi achieved yesterday is already part of history. They wrote each word of our superb season, with the help of Luis Enrique and his fantastic staff. Even Zubizarreta deserves credit for what we achieved yesterday, as Lucho and Puyol made sure to remind us all of.
But Bartomeu did not write a single letter of this success story.
We achieved our second Triplete in spite of Bartomeu and his board.
Let’s remind how “vital” our President has been since he took over in January 24th, 2014:
Our club was indicted by tax fraud for the first time in its history
One month after taking over, Bartomeu went before a Judge and said “the club would do everything the same again” when they signed Neymar. Result? The tax fraud case regarding the signings was opened, and FC Barcelona was charged with said crime for the first time in its history.
Of course Rosell was the one who personally signed Neymar and thought of all the “financial engineering” that landed us on that situation. But Bartomeu signed all contracts as Sporting Vice-President, and as Rosell’s best friend, knew very well what was happening.
Rosell may end up in jail for 7 years, and Bartomeu for 2. The trial will only take place in the next few months, most likely in 2016, but someone who has dragged our club’s name through so much dirt shouldn’t even be allowed to run on the coming elections.
We were banned by FIFA and cannot sign players and Bartomeu was at fault
Rosell and Bartomeu were warned by FIFA about the irregularities regarding several youth signings in January 2013.
Bartomeu was then Sporting Vice-President and had the responsibility to act on it and protect our club and the kids’ future. He didn’t.
13 months later, when our club did absolutely nothing to respond to FIFA, the punishment came: we were forbidden from signings players.
The first Bartomeu did, now as President: went on live TV and said it all a “black hand’s” fault.
The man who had already lied to all culers when he said Abidal would be renewed the second he played again for us in 2013, was now doing it again.
Bartomeu knew about the FIFA Case, the players involved, and still sat idle. The second we were banned from signings players, he blamed some dark, mysterious person for such situation.
As we’re gonna see ahead, people in the club knew clearly who was to blame, and ended up paying dearly for speaking their minds.
Bartomeu stalled Messi’s renewal even after it had been agreed upon
FC Barcelona took 9 months to renew the best player in history. From August, 2013 until May, 2014, Lionel Messi and his family waited for the club to finalize the renewal that has happened without any problems since 2008.
On May 6th, 2015, it had all be ready and agreed upon. But Bartomeu and his team of geniuses advisors decided on the last minute to change things, especially regarding Messi’s image rights.
Now imagine being Messi. Being our best ever player, waiting for 9 months to have something he had the right to get, being told that in the last minute that club had changed their minds.
13 more days it took to have Messi’s signature on that contract. May 19th it was, then.
Messi left for the World Cup completely frustrated at the club, and Bartomeu had everything to do with it.
The summer signings were made by Zubizarreta and Luis Enrique, not Bartomeu
In the last few weeks I talked to several culers who actually thought Bartomeu is the reason we signed players like Suarez, Rakitic and ter Stegen on the last summer.
The same way not even Joan Laporta, our best ever President, ever made any signings, neither did Bartomeu. It does not work like that.
Florentino Perez surely does it at his club, but just look at how well that is going for him. And on the one time a FCB President handled a signing by his own, he may end up in prison for 7 years. Yes, Rosell and Neymar.
Let’s go through each signing:
ter Stegen: had been scouted by FCB for years and was handpicked by Zubi to take over after Valdes left.
Rakitic: since Lucho was hired before our 13/14 season had ended, he asked Zubi to get the croatian. Lucho had received Tata’s warning about Cesc being a rotten apple, and wanted Rakitic.
Luis Suarez: signing the best 9 in the world doesn’t take much from a President. We needed money and Luis Enrique’s clear wish to sign him. So much so, Luis Enrique himself went to Liverpool to finalize the deal, and not Bartomeu.
Claudio Bravo: Lucho’s second in command, Unzue, specifically asked for Bravo. He wanted a more experienced keeper, and we got just that. Again, nothing to do with Bartomeu.
Douglas: A signing so strange it almost caused one of Zubi’s close assistants to be fired. It had to do with Traffic’s influence inside our club, and neither the coach or President were involved in such ridiculous signing.
Mathieu: Another direct wish from Luis Enrique. He wanted the French player, and we paid the 20mi euros to acquire him.
Vermaelen: Zubi was responsible from bringing a player he was told by doctors was already injured.
So, no. Signings the checks does not give any kind of credit to Bartomeu regarding our last signings. No one in their right minds say Laporta was responsible for signings players like Toure and Eto’o, so no one is gonna say Bartomey brought Luis Suarez.
Txiki was our best Sporting Director during the Laporta era, and he even landed the City job. No one is gonna hire Bartomeu as Sporting Director after he steps down. Simple as that.
January 4th, 2015: Anoeta and the firing of Zubizarreta
After losing to Anoeta, and being asked once again about the FIFA Ban, Zubizarreta had enough. He said with all words that they should be asking that question to Bartomeu, “since he was the Sporting Director at the time”.
Bartomeu’s response was firing Zubi on the next day. The same Zubi that had been used as a shield by this board time and time again, the same Zubi who with the help of Luis Enrique made great signings in the summer, the same Zubi who had brought Carles Puyol to work with the club, had been fired.
And that is why today, after winning our 5th UCL title and second Triplete, Luis Enrique is still unsure about staying on as coach.
From that moment on, Luis Enrique said many times he didn’t feel right at the club with the person who hired him, Zubi, gone.
Not only did Zubi hire Lucho.
He had wanted him for the 13/14 season, but Rosell pulled Tata Martino out of nowhere (no, Messi didn’t ask for Tata Martino. Messi had never even met Tata before he became our coach…). After Tito, Zubi wanted Lucho, but had to endure Tata for a whole season before making it happen.
When he did, they made great signings together, and after the first real crisis, Lucho saw the man who had put him in charge of FC Barcelona being fired for SAYING THE TRUTH about Bartomeu and the FIFA Ban.
Luis Enrique is loyal, and that never went down with him. His doubts right now regarding staying on as coach has nothing or very little to do with the players, Messi or Neymar. Lucho isn’t dumb, and the players aren’t either. They know they must keep this partnership to attain more glory next season. Any differences were put aside to win titles, and we won every single one of them.
But Lucho knows Bartomeu, the man who asked fair play from the other candidates but managed to appear and every single event to try to get as many votes as he can, cannot be trusted. What he did to Zubi was treason, and Lucho does not want to be responsible for such a man having any chance of winning the elections, nor does he want to work under a man that could throw him under the bus at any second.
Bartomeu will soon be on trial for tax fraud in a case he managed to drag our club’s good name with him. He was also directly responsible for our club being banned from signings players during 2015. He lied to us all about Abidal’s renewal.
His chances of winning the election are low even with the Triplete. But if Lucho steps down now and say all the things he’s been meaning to say since Zubi was fired, Bartomeu would be dead in the water.
Let’s hope Lucho stays on as coach, but still makes it clear to the fans who deserves the merits from this outstanding season we just had, and who are people who only made things harder for us.
Bartomeu changed our shirt’s design because of money
Our club has had different crests throughout its history. Different stadiums. Hell, we’ve even had different names!
But our shirt has always been one way, and Bartomeu changed it for next season to earn more money: https://lucasammr.com/2015/05/23/geometry/
Bartomeu has been one of the main culprits for the downfall of La Masia
La Masia reached its peak under Alexanko and Benaiges, people who were given the keys to the kingdom by Laporta.
Rosell came and chose Amor and Puig, who started to change things and even focus more on signing foreign players to get in the way of Real Madrid than focusing on catalan players, which eventually led to the FIFA Ban.
Bartomeu fired Amor and Puig, so the blame to the FIFA Ban would fall on them, and brought on Roura and Altimira, ex-players with no experience in managing the Academy.
The result?
No Masia players coming up the first team, and Barça B being relegated to 3rd Division.
I’m gonna write, with the help of friends, an extensive article on how Rosell and Bartomeu have been destroying La Masia since 2010.
Starting today, all my focus and energy will be on making it clear why Bartomeu is not fit to even run on the coming elections, let alone win it.