Barcelona2025 ends with Real Madrid and FC Barcelona installed in trenches, attacking each other. Nothing new, actually. They use the networks and the journalists who are encouraged to throw darts at each other, to try to convince the fans that the opponent always plays with referee aids. Old footage is retrieved, forgotten matches are analysed, whatever it takes to make it clear that titles were won by competing against a favored opponent. Some, using the Negreira case as a weapon, others using newspapers and statistics.
The two eternal rivals, sometimes traveling companions when it comes to defending their interests, live more comfortably this way, enemies. It was strange to see the complicity they had in recent years in matters such as the Superliga or financial funds. When the plates are thrown at each other, the two presidents are doing well, as few things unite more than a foreign enemy. If you attack Barça by saying that the titles won were not thanks to Messi, Guardiola or Xavi, since the credit was due to Negreira, you get a standing ovation and see you as a hero fighting against a dark enemy. At Barça, the same. The sociological Madridism what Laporta is talking about unites generations of Barcelona fans and brings together different families of culers. Few things unite more than seeing grandparents talking about Guruzeta and children remembering that Mestalla Cup final with Mourinho on the bench where Madrid handed out everything they wanted.
Laporta is doing well to face an election year further away from Florentino than ever before. And hopefully it will go even further. These days it seems that the white president’s project to allow the entry of foreign capital into the club is taking shape. The idea of having a CEO like a company and like the big English clubs, breaking little by little the shareholder ownership model. In Madrid, critical voices have been silenced or remain silent. There is a dogmatism that scares, a loyalty to the great leader that scares.
Seeing how Barça can become the only great club in the world owned by its people, with a different model, capable of standing up to the giants and winning titles, serves to remind us of the exceptionality of this club, whether it is wrong or not. Madrid becomes a mirror to make it clear that Barça is fortunately different. More diverse, for example. And with a point of romanticism, since it is believed that you can defeat the state clubs without ceasing to be as it is. It’s okay, in these times where everything is on sale. Remember that VIPS seats, stadium names and parts of the business can be sold, but that Barça, unlike Madrid, is not for sale. May it be for many years.
