When Josep Maria Bartomeu stepped down as Barcelona president in October 2020, he did so in disgrace. He had left the Blaugrana on the verge of bankruptcy after one disastrous decision after another. Less than a year later, though, Bartomeu was defending his tenure in an open letter published by EFE and also insisting that his successor, Joan Laporta, had exacerbated Barca's problems.
Laporta dismissed his fellow Catalan's claims as "lies", "an effort to justify unjustifiable management" and "an exercise in desperation". Four years on, though, Laporta is facing similar allegations of financial mismanagement.
Indeed, former presidential candidate Victor Font claimed last summer that Barca are worse off now than they were under Bartomeu, and while that may be an exaggeration, there's no denying that the club remains in an utterly perilous position - as underlined by the utterly humiliating Dani Olmo registration farce...
