Barcelona is the football soap opera that never stops airing, even through LaLiga‘s shutdown.
Thursday night’s episode started a little late, with six board members resigning on the stroke of midnight.
Sportsmail looks at the latest twist in a crisis that has so many of the club legends past and present scratching their heads as to how such a big football institution could be run so badly.
Six Barcelona board members have resigned in fall-out with president Josep Maria Bartomeu
What is at the heart of the resignations?
The club have been accused of paying money to a social media company that then planted negative stories about club figures at odds with the board.
Barcelona chiefs were at the time forced to deny the claims, issuing a statement admitting to having hired I3Ventures but stringently denying that I3Ventures had any link to the social media accounts that emitted negative stories about Messi, Gerard Pique and Pep Guardiola among others.
The fact that the bill for the I3 Ventures company was broken down into various invoices so that none of them reached €200,000 – a figure that would have meant they needed to be passed to a special audit unit inside the club, raised suspicions.
So did the total figure paid to I3 Ventures of €1million – it seemed high for what was supposed to be a social media monitoring service.
When directors who were connected to the unit and would have looked into the contract, had it not been broken down in small chunks, produced a potentially damning report on the incident president Josep Bartomeu asked those involved to leave the board.
They quit. Vice-presidents, Emili Rousaud and Enrique Tombas and directors Silvio Elias, Maria Teixidor, Josep Pont and Jordi Calsamiglia all presented their resignation at midnight on Thursday.
Vice-presidents Emili Rousaud (back row, left) and Enrique Tombas (back row, second right) plus directors Silvio Elias (back row, fourth right) and Maria Teixidor (back row, second left) have stepped down
What else has happened?
And there’s more. The directors who have resigned have also been unhappy with the way the club has so far dealt with the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Barcelona have agreed a pay cut with the players but it only covers the period of time the country is in lockdown: March 11 – April 11, with a possible further two-week extension.
The pay cut also only applies to players’ monthly salary, not the two sums they are paid each season incorporating bonuses. It’s in the two payments that the bulk of their money is paid.
Cutting monthly salaries was hasty and is not particularly effective in the long term. The agreement Real Madrid announced with their players this week runs until the end of the season and is a percentage of their total earnings.
Barcelona have agreed a pay cut with the players but it only covers Spain’s lockdown period
Is there any sign of the storm clearing?
No, far from it. One of the resigning directors, Rousaud, said on RAC1 (Catalan radio) on Friday morning: ‘If the auditors tell us that the cost of this service (I3 Ventures) is €100,000 and we paid €1m, then someone has had their hands in the til. I have no evidence and cannot say who.
‘This contract had been broken into pieces of €200,000 so that it would not have to go through the control commission. I don’t know at what level, or if the president knew but it seems clear to me.’
That seems even more serious. And those who have resigned want elections?
It was interesting that the last part of the letter delivered to Catalan paper La Vanguardia did not ‘demand’ elections or ‘call for’ elections, it ‘recommended’ them.
The sub-text here was: Members, all this needs to be brought out into the open properly; the club really needs to hold elections fast.
And will there be elections at the end of this season?
Well the letter also said: ‘as soon as circumstances permit’ so maybe not. There is a feeling that Bartomeu could still hold on.
He has another year left of his tenure and with the immediate future so unpredictable it may well be that he is allowed to muddle through.
If things are as messy under the surface as those who have resigned seem to be suggesting then it is probably best for him to keep everything under wraps for as long as he can, giving him time to try sort things out.
There is a feeling that Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu could still hold on
And speaking of Messi…
This is about much more than just a battle between the president and the club’s best player. Those who have resigned actually think the players need to be giving up more money to save the club from financial ruin than Bartomeu has so far agreed.
But Messi wants the club run seriously because a well run club is more likely to be capable of building a winning team around him on the pitch.
The most likely scenario now is that he sees his contract through until the end of next season when there will definitely be elections because Bartomeu’s time in office will have officially come to an end. He can then sit down with the new president and sign a new contract.
This is about more than battle between the president and the club’s best player – Lionel Messi
But what if more directors resign? Will that not force elections?
Yes, good point. There is a club rule that when 75 per cent of the board quit or there are only five directors left then there must be elections.
Bartomeu still has 12 board members alongside him and the talk around the club on Friday morning is that he is far closer to appointing new directors than considering resigning.
Who comes to the rescue and sorts all this out?
Elections will bring several strong candidates, each with a former club legend in his group.
Victor Font would at the moment be a favourite with the likes of Xavi, Carles Puyol and Jordi Cruyff as part of his possible team. But forcing elections is no formality.
Elections will bring several strong candidates, each with ex-club legend in his group like Xavi
How have the supporters reacted?
Even before the resignations there were calls for the president to resign. In the last two home games before the shutdown there were white handkerchief protests at the start and at the end of matches with chants for him to go.
With the city still in lockdown and no games being played, the Nou Camp and the bars around the stadium have not been the hives of discontent they might have been.
There are still some who back the president. Others blame all board members and are tired of the constant negative attention drawn to the club. One fan tweeted: ’12 more to go, in reference to the directors left serving after the resignations.’