The debate on a possible conversion of FC Barcelona into a sports limited company arises in light of the critical economic situation suffered by the entity and which is getting worse as the months go by. Barcelona fans coexist, incredulous but passive, with erratic management, directionless, opaque and far from the minimum standards of transparency required by a club owned by its members, whose uniqueness has been forged over more than 124 years of history. .
The critical economic situation is the pretext used by those who defend the privatization of the club, who propose the entry of private capital as a way to liquidate the current debt and to modernize a management model that shows real symptoms of collapse.
From the outset, a maxim that is hardly debatable: the legal form of the club is neither, nor should it be in any case, an obstacle to its good management. And if it is, it can only be explained by the incompetence of its managers.
Certainly, the club's situation requires structural changes. To begin with, the immediate review of its governance model, totally anchored in the past, with managers supplanting executive tasks, without defined responsibilities and without control mechanisms. It demands, in turn, the professionalization of its management model, contrary to the current nepotism, where the hiring of family members, friends and acquaintances of the president has been normalized, prioritizing loyalty over professional merits. And it also demands a profound economic restructuring, with an exhaustive austerity plan and the improvement of income sources, which results in an ordinary business that immediately obtains profits, the antipodes of the current plan, marked by crazy investment in wrong assets and by the permanent sale of assets.
These changes are perfectly compatible with a property divided into 144,000 equal and indivisible parts, in the hands of its partners, without any of them being able to have more than one. So, why do we consider giving up our most precious identity trait and the basis of our desired status as “more than a club”? When obvious symptoms of social disaffection are observed, should the recipe be the entry of external investors into the club's ownership? In a commercialized world, where any brand dreams of projecting its difference, giving up the trait that today most distinguishes us in the elite of world sport would be more than reckless.
It is in these difficult times when the authenticity and resilience of people and projects is tested. In 124 years of history we have gone through moments even more critical than the current one, but we have always found generous and honest Barcelona fans who have known how to overcome these extreme difficulties at every moment.
Welcome the debate on the ownership model. With the right people at the head of the club, financially and sportingly qualified, and of proven honesty, and with a budget of 800 million, there should be no problem.
We also have to teach that we cannot always win. We must demand a recognizable game and, if so, victories will also come from time to time.
Those in favor of the corporation will accuse me of being an outdated romantic. But nothing I say is utopian. Let's take care of what it has cost us so much to build.
PS: The silence and complicity of the current president and his board of directors in this debate should alert us.
