On Tuesday, Cristiano Ronaldo, 35, was waiting in Turin for a test result that should enable him to see an old friend again. In mid-October, Ronaldo tested positive for Corona on the sidelines of an international match; after returning to Italy, he kept fit at home. The old friend was Lionel Messi from FC Barcelona, the man with whom he had shared eleven of the last twelve world football trophies. The reason for the intended reunion? The Champions League match between the Turin team Ronaldo and Messi’s FC Barcelona. Ronaldo’s test result should be available in the evening, said Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo Tuesday afternoon.
The last clash between Messi and Ronaldo happened in May 2018 in a “Clásico” between Barça and Real Madrid; At that time, Ronaldo was still playing in the Spanish capital. The latest “Clásico” edition took place on Saturday, Barça lost 3-1 to their arch-rivals. This usually leads to days of debate, this time too, about referees, for example. Since Monday evening, however, they have been overlaid by speculation about the future of Barça’s President Josep Maria Bartomeu, 57. Because he was facing the end on Tuesday.
The evening before, Bartomeu, who had been in office since 2014, had assured after a meeting of the executive committee that he had “never thought of resigning”; his mandate expires in 2021. But the enormous number of questions about a possible resignation that were asked in a press conference lasting more than an hour were an indication of his precarious situation. On Tuesday, the events rolled over. The radio station reported at noon SER stringthat it was only a matter of days before Bartomeu and the presidium team left. The club’s crisis had clearly become irrepressible.
After Messi’s spectacular announcement in August that he wanted to leave the club, the opposition launched a vote of no confidence in Bartomeu; The rebels easily surpassed the 16,000 or so signatures that were necessary to force a ballot among the members. According to the statute, the vote should take place next weekend. It was already scheduled. But Bartomeu recently tried to postpone the referendum date; he exposed himself to the charge of bowing the club statutes.
Bartomeu said that because of the pandemic, they wanted to refrain from putting up ballot boxes exclusively in the Barça stadium, as is customary in presidential elections. The plan is to set up polling stations in 21 locations across Spanish territory; you need a lead time of two weeks for this.
Bartomeu called an extraordinary board meeting for Tuesday evening
On Tuesday, however, Catalonia’s regional government announced that “neither legal nor health reasons” speak against a primary election in the stadium, provided that strict hygiene protocols are observed. An immediate scheduling of the referendum was therefore imperative. Only: That would have put Bartomeu in danger of becoming the first Barça president in history to be chased from the court by the members. Resignation would be more elegant. It would necessarily lead to new elections within three months. Accordingly, Bartomeu decided not to travel to Turin and called an extraordinary board meeting for Tuesday evening. Especially since there was also a fire on another front.
Because: Bartomeu had justified the refusal to resign with the fact that urgent decisions would be made that could not be entrusted to a provisional president who would have to be appointed after a resignation. This meant, among other things, the negotiations with the Barça employees about crisis-related salary cuts and contract extensions. A meeting between the club’s management and the players was scheduled for Tuesday. But the professionals let it go.
Against this background, Bartomeu’s statements on Monday looked almost like the proverbial “famous last words”. Although it was the first to deal with the Messi case. Bartomeu had thwarted Messi’s escape plans in the summer with reference to the contract situation and upset Messi. At the time, he deliberately had “no dialectical argument” with Messi because it was supposed to be part of “the new project,” said Bartomeu. “I was accused of trying to force his departure in order to save the balance sheet. That was not the case,” said the boss of the financially troubled club. “Keeping the best player in the world here is the best option, including for Leo,” he added. “We all want Leo to end his career at Camp Nou.” Does he do that? His contract expires in summer 2021. The chances should be no less without Bartomeu than with him.
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