Joan Laporta rival continues calls for resignation of Barcelona President – ‘It’s worse than Bartomeu’ | OneFootball

Former Barcelona Presidential candidate Victor Font has responded to incumbent President Joan Laporta, after the latter accused the groups that had demanded his resignation of ‘attacking the club by land, air and sea’. Laporta also stated that his ‘enemies’ were ‘ignorant’ and noted that he felt sorry for them.

Font has responded less than 48 hours later with an interview on radio station RAC1. He said he stood by the demand for Laporta’s resignation, and said the press conference was evidence that it was dangerous to leave Laporta in charge of the club.

“The appearance was regrettable and intolerable. Seeing the president of Barça with this aggressiveness… A press conference is to give information and he did not do it. He belittled thousands of Barcelona fans who think that the club should be managed in a very different way than his.”

“Who is Laporta to say who is a good or bad Barcelona fan? Are we Barcelona fans the enemies? The bad guys many culers and the good ones are those from ‘El Chiringuito’ or Real Madrid?”

That said, he did ease away from the idea of a motion of no confidence, citing the destabilising effect on the club, and the difficulty of carrying it out successfully. Font criticised Laporta for improvising with the club’s finances in order to sign Dani Olmo and Pau Victor, with their registrations still up in the air. On Wednesday night, on-loan forward Vitor Roque scored against Barcelona just over a year after moving to Catalonia for €30m. It is a deal that arouses Font’s suspicion.

“We had Marc Guiu, there was no ‘fair play’ and we signed Vitor Roque. If we saw that he was the new Ronaldinho, we understood it and prioritised talent, but it is evident that Vitor Roque does not have the characteristics to play for Barca and Deco had offered him to the club when he was his agent. Jordi Cruyff and Mateu Alemany said that there was no ‘fair play’ and it was not a priority. The first thing Deco did when he arrived was sign Vitor Roque.”

Another controversial issue that Laporta defended himself on was the presence of Darren Dein as a mediator in their new Nike sponsorship deal. Dein supposedly earned €50m from the deal, while Font pointed out that mediators tend to earn by the hour not by percentage.

“They tell us that Darren Dein was the mediator because Nike and Barca believed it was the best solution. That is not the information I have. I know that Dein was the intermediary from the month of May, when the negotiations were advanced. Is nobody wondering why [Economic] Vice-President Juli Guiu has left?”

Guiu departed in the last week, citing personal reasons, but many outlets have reported that he decided to exit as a result of the Nike negotiations. During Laporta’s tenure, more than 30 people in senior management have left the club, often due to non-professional motives.