When Joan Laporta came to power back in 2003, Barcelona was a club in turmoil. It had been four years since since the Blaugrana had won a major trophy and the Catalan club could barely cope with the immense dominance of rivals Real Madrid and Valencia.
Not now, though. Just six months ago, Barcelona were left reeling from a loss to David Moyes’ Real Sociedad at the Anoeta. Luis Enrique’s tenure was hanging on by the skin of his teeth, and the board was forced to call early elections to dissolve the tension. Bartomeu, for all it was worth, was a dead man walking.
Remarkably, days out from the election, Bartomeu was considered the favourite for the presidential hot-seat at the expense of, as Agusti Benedito put it, his worst enemy. But it seemed the businessman with airport and seaport facilities to his name was always that one step ahead. At the end of the day, Laporta made a meal of his campaign, and if anything, he was his own worst enemy.
In early March, a poll from Catalan radio show El Club de la Mitjanit found that the former president had 51% percent of the votes, a sizeable majority over Bartomeu who had only garnered 27% of the votes from respondents, that is, before he even confirmed his intention to run as president.
But, in hindsight, his three-month campaign can be characterised by one which was severely disorganised and grossly improvised. For a man who, as a former politician arguably knew of the secrets to political success, his mistakes costed him oh so dearly.
Read the rest of my piece on World Soccer Talk
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