• Exclusive Hacienda seizes the only heritage of Negreira: a Peugeot 208

Joan Laporta, more pantocrator than president, and with more apostles than managers, is one of those leaders who, getting excited and clenching their fists, turn their own sin into aggression of others. And Florentino Pérez, who had not been invited this time to eat, but to the box, took this Saturday the determination not to attend the classic at the Camp Nou to understand that his presence in the Barça stadium did not make sense.

Laporta was so distressed by the Negreira case that last Tuesday, even without having given that press conference converted into El Dorado, and although he had to absent himself from several promotional events, he took a flight to Porto. There the magnate of the representation Jorge Mendes was waiting for him, with whom he shared more hours of rest than business. Because in reality Laporta, no matter how much the judicial, media and social storm rages and threatens to take everything away, is going at his pace.

This Sunday's classic, in addition to defining the outcome of the League – Xavi Hernández's team aspires to leave Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid to 12 points, with 12 games at stake – puts at stake both the reputation of the championship and that of Spanish football. The 7.3 million euros paid over 18 years by Barcelona to the former number two of the referees, in addition to linking four presidents -Joan Gaspart, Joan Laporta, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu-, have forced the institutions to position themselves before the harshness of the accusations of the Prosecutor's Office, which warns of a continued crime of corruption in the sports field.

So Barcelona waited with more expectation than concern for the response that Real Madrid could offer, which, after making the towel with the matter, ended up announcing its intention to appear in the case as a private accusation. A gesture that the Barça club took advantage of in a scenario in which populism is the shortest way to explain itself to the members.

Alliance in question

Because, although Laporta's advisers have spent the week taking pride in not wanting to sit down to eat with the representation of Real Madrid, nobody in the Barça entity had dared to hint at the rupture of relations. Laporta wanted to sit down with Florentino tonight in the box at the Camp Nou. Reasons were not lacking and so they expected him in the Barça club before the white president decided on Saturday not to travel to Barcelona. Both leaders will now have to think about whether they remain allied so that the moribund project of the Super League does not end up stalling; and if their common pincer against Javier Tebas in LaLiga can survive the Negreira case.

This state of turmoil and tension, transferred from social networks to media pulpits, and therefore to football stadiums, has increased at the pace of journalistic revelations and the judicial progress of the case. The court of instruction number 1 of Barcelona admitted the complaint of the Prosecutor's Office. Anticorruption managed to take over the investigations of the case. And in the Barça club they did not change their communication policy. They considered it appropriate that, for now, the entity should continue to defend itself at the stroke of a message from its president. Whether it was before the Catalan high bourgeoisie, before some Vitorian penyistes, before the captains of the sections or before a chamber of the club itself. A communication strategy that has bothered some of the main advisers of the Barcelona president.

On March 7, in the Equestrian Circle of Barcelona, and without journalists being invited, Laporta stirred up the scarecrow of the conspiracy on the part of Thebes. "There is a will to strangle us economically and turn us into a joint-stock company. But Barça belongs to its partners." Before the hostile reception suffered by Barcelona in San Mamés, the president intervened on March 11 at a dinner of the Peña Barcelonista de Vitoria-Gasteiz. He raised the tone: "Barça is a feeling that does not get dirty. There are very serious attacks on our shield that have nothing to do with reality. We will fight to the last drop of our blood [sic] to defend the honour, reputation and interests of Barcelona." In front of the captains of the sections of the club in a parliament held on March 13 at the Auditori 1899 of the Camp Nou, Laporta went from controlling tears to taking out the hammer: "Do not think that I am moved by weakness, I get excited because I really want to face all the scoundrels who are staining our shield." And already this Friday, before the official media of the entity in another one-way message, he settled vehemently: "They want to control Barça. Keep it. We will not only defend ourselves, we will attack."

Meanwhile, Thebes has tried to maintain the media pulse. "We are facing the biggest reputational crisis in the history of LaLiga. And it affects us all, not just Barça. If Barça goes down to the Second Division, nothing would happen either, it would go up the following year," he said last Thursday at a forum organized by La Vanguardia.

More slogans than explanations

The stands of the Camp Nou, to date, has ignored the Negreira case. These are times when slogans work better than explanations. And perhaps there will not be one more striking tonight than Rosalía's Motomami, printed on the shirts of the Barça first team for this classic thanks to Spotify's sponsorship agreement. Although the times of the scarves and banners – even prefabricated – were left behind in a football that insists on moving away from the traditional fan, it has also influenced the scarce opposition that the Laporta government has encountered. Víctor Font, his main opponent in the last elections, has preferred not to position himself publicly for now. And the movements of a group of businessmen to organize to refound the club have not gone from dinners in reserved.

"They will not be able to destabilize us," Xavi Hernández simply replied on the eve. And the Barcelona coach said it, not because he had a special interest in getting fully into the mess of the conspiracy, but not to contradict his president. The coach has enough to try to keep the doors of his dressing room closed – vice president Rafa Yuste liked shaking hands with the players before training on Saturday – and finally settle the League that certifies the value of his work.

For this, Xavi will have to prove that his invention does not fall without Pedri, whose muscles tie him to the stretcher. And that football, with more or less style, continues to make sense despite the pringosa of the stain of money.

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  • FC Barcelona
  • Real Madrid
  • Joan Laporta