Josep Bartomeu’s time as Barcelona chairman was widely marked by corruption scandals and financial ruin. In an interview with Spanish media outlet Sport, the club’s veteran Gerard Pique has criticised the former president for lying to the players about several important matters.
Bartomeu’s reign as Barcelona president (2014-2020) brought about widespread financial ruin for the club, the consequences of which it is still suffering. The new board, led by Joan Laporta, has been toiling hard to secure new sources of revenue and lines of credit to assuage the financial crisis.
The Blaugrana even had to part ways with Lionel Messi in the summer due to the severity of the debt and the toll it took on the club’s finances. What’s more, Bartomeu has been widely criticised for being a power-hungry leader who left no stone unturned to protect his own image.
Speaking at ‘The Wild Project’ via SPORT, Barcelona centre-back Pique has fired shots at Bartomeu and has revealed some of the truths regarding his work at the club.
The ‘Barcagate’ scandal was an attempt where apparently, Bartomeu used club funds to sponsor a social media company in order to criticise his political opponents as well as the players on a regular basis.
“Bartomeu lied to Messi and me at the Ciudad Deportiva. He told us he didn’t know anything about Barçagate.”
Pique said.
During the Barcagate scandal, the defender had once come out in support of Bartomeu and his management in a press conference. When asked about that, he said:
“I came out to defend Bartomeu at a press conference, but he knew it: the person in charge of everything that happened with Barçagate is his right-hand man. Later, in an interview, I criticised him and he sent me a message saying that it was not true.”
Even after it was exposed that I3 Ventures were being paid by Barcelona to do social media monitoring work in February 2020, the club denied the allegations. However, police continued to investigate the incident before making arrests in March 2021.
Some of the work of I3 Ventures included painting a more positive image of Bartomeu while also seeking to disparage the reputation of several players – including Pique, Messi, and Xavi Hernandez.
The police got involved in the case because the investigation included criminal misdemeanour of improper management where Barcelona paid an inflated price for I3 Ventures’ services (allegedly up to six times higher than the typical market rate).
Pique also shed light on the fact that Bartomeu continue to pay his employee despite firing him over the Barcagate episode.
“Bartomeu fired his right-hand man from his job, but he continued to have a salary. He had a cordial relationship with Bartomeu, but the fact that he lied to me was serious. Bad decisions were made at the club.”
However, all that is in the past as Barcelona are slowly rebuilding their image on both a financial as well as sporting level. On the pitch, the arrival of Xavi has had a magnificent effect, as was evident in Barcelona’s recent 0-4 smashing of Real Madrid. The Spaniard has taken the team from ninth in the league to potentially second, if they manage a win over Sevilla on March 3.
On the administration level as well, Barcelona have secured a new credit line from Goldman Sachs and have secured a new sponsorship deal with Spotify. They have also made plenty of shrewd signings in the winter transfer window, and things already look promising for next summer.
