“Barça is currently governed by a fan club,” one of the nearly 100 workers who left the club during Laporta’s first year in office told ARA, referring to what the president himself defines as “managing the ‘entity as a large family business’, prioritizing loyalty and facing discrepancy. “You have to argue very well with Jan why you don’t agree with him,” director Miquel Camps admitted to Catalunya Ràdio a few days ago. Laporta, plenipotentiary, represents and executes with up to four departments that report directly to him without going through the filter of the treasurer, Ferran Olivé, or the board. One of these areas is security, which has always been handled with special care. During his first term (2003-2010) he professionalized it with Elías Frade (2003-2008), a former police officer who shielded him from the attacks of Boixos Nois. In his second term, he replicated this model first with Ferran López, former number two of Major Trapero and whom he fired when he was less than a year old, and now with Lluís Venteo, an expert in high-risk party devices of the Catalan police. Both now and almost 20 years ago, Laporta relies on the judgment of his ex-brother-in-law, Alejandro Echevarría, to decide on such issues.
The latest decision regarding the department has caused Rafa Soldado to stop being the head of security for the first half football team after seven years in office. He arrived at Barça in 2014, when he successfully passed a selection process under the tutelage of former Barça manager Josep Ramon Vidal-Abarca, and will now change his travels and the Joan Gamper Sports City for other tasks at the club. His relocation, they argue from Laporta’s entourage, is for “professional reasons.” “We need someone less involved in the players and more discreet,” they added. This person is Óscar Ferreras, who until now was in charge of security at the Casino de Barcelona and arrives at Barça recommended by Frade, his mentor in the Peralada Group’s gaming rooms, and Echevarría, Laporta’s external adviser. Ferreras, who will report to Carles Viñas (ex-wife who has also recently joined), made his debut on a trip to Frankfurt. A locker room has been found surprised by a novelty that I did not expect. In fact, Xavi personally mediated to try to prevent Soldado from leaving. “This gesture makes it even more obvious that a change was needed,” they point out from the top of the Culer dome.
Ferran López, a fused bet
With Ferran López, the argument used to justify his dismissal pointed to an “under-endowment” of the Barça-Madrid device of the incidents with Koeman, as well as to an “inoperative and technological” disposition. Other club sources add another reason for Laporta’s loss of confidence in his duties: the management of the tender that was organized to award the contract for the security segment corresponding to the surveillance cameras of the entrances and exits. from the club’s facilities and to the microphone in sensitive areas, such as the president’s office. López objected that the result of the tender be reviewed to deliver the contract to the company Barna Porters, when the winner was Sabico. From Laporta’s environment, however, he denies any irregularities in this process: “It was a tender. And that’s it.” These two companies will also fight for the big package of stadium security on match days, whose contract, valued at more than 3 million euros, ends this season.
