This is all about power. Is President Bartomeu the perpetrator or the victim?
Purely sporting headlines about FC Barcelona are rare these days.
When the Catalans won 5-0 against Eibar on Saturday afternoon thanks to Lionel Messi’s four-man team, and later regained the top spot thanks to Real Madrid’s 1-0 defeat at Levante, it distracted, at least for a short while, from the unpleasant things that are currently on the agenda.
Criticism of the dubious signing of striker Martin Braithwaite is the lesser annoyance.
What hurts the dazzling image of the Spanish showpiece club much more is “Barcagate”. The scandal surrounding the defamation and distribution of fake news allegedly commissioned by club president Josep Maria Bartomeu via an Argentine company. This casts a very bad light on the blue grana.
So far it is known and confirmed that Barca and the company “I3 Ventures” were contractually linked. It is also a fact that current and former members of the club and their environment, including superstar Lionel Messi, former coach Pep Guardiola and presidential candidate Victor Font, have been denigrated in social media – by accounts that “I3 Ventures” has managed. Bartomeu has admitted this.
What he denies, however, is that he commissioned the South American company to do so. He even threatens to take legal action if any allegations to the contrary are made, but this has not yet been initiated.
Conspiracy against Bartomeu?
The crucial question is: who was ultimately the puppet mastermind behind the dirty campaign?
This is where Font comes in again. The Spanish economic mogul has set his sights on the presidency of Bartomeu.