GO BARÇA SUBMITTED A VOTE OF NO TRUST AGAINST SANDRO ROSELL AND THREE VICE- PRESIDENTS
On Monday 30 September, two members of GO Barça platform, assisted to FC
Barcelona central offices to present intentions of submitting the request for a
vote of no confidence against President Sandro Rosell i Feliu,
Vice President of Sports Josep M. Bartomeu
i Floreta, the Vice President of Financials Javier Faus i Santasusana and Vice
President of Social Affairs, Jordi Cardoner i Casaus. This
procedure is regulated by Article 51, in the club’s current statutes.
There are many reasons
that we argue to filling the Vote of No Trust, as it is exposed in the next
paragraphs, but there are two reasons that are consistent and common over the time this board has been in charge of
the club. Those reasons can be summed up in their constant attitude of LYING
and DECEIVING FC Barcelona members over repeated occasions.
TIMELINE
Here we present a timeline
of events that have inspired Go Barça to submit the Vote of No Trust, regarding
the action of FC Barcelona directive board over different matters:
1. On August
26th 2013, after three years of continuous news that affected both honesty and ethic
stature of FC Barcelona president, which were never denied by him, two members
of GO Barça sent a letter
to FC Barcelona President, asking for explanations about these reports.
2. On
September 5th 2013, FC Barcelona President answered our letter, saying to us that he would reply our
demands in a radio show, “The Midnight Club (“El Club de la Mitjanit”) at Radio
Catalunya, conducted by Pere Escobar.
* NOTE: We regret that the president did not held a press conference to
give appropriate explanations to all members and supporters of FC Barcelona,
and not only listeners of a midnight radio show in Catalunya. We thingit would have been appropriate to hold a press conference
accepting all kinds of questions, instead of an interview recorded before its
release.
3. During
the interview President Rosell repeatedly said that he would never talk
about these issues again, therefore affecting the image of the club and the
honor of his person. Analyzing the interview, it
can be stated that:
3.1 President
Rosell did not deny the information regarding court cases in Brazil against him: In linght
of allegations, held in court according to Brazilian press, that he received
illegal commissions for management of games, he minimized those allegations, using
the euphemism "fees" instead of "commissions". Later on, it has been proved that these “fees” are “commissions” indeed,
since the
agreement was leaked to the press.
3.2 President
Rosell repeatedly lied to the audience:
3.2.1 Rosell claimed that he had no court cases open in any country in the world. However, the company called Ailanto Marketing, in which Rosell has a 99% of ownership, has an open court case for fraud, which could condemn him up to eight years in prison, according to Brazilian press . All documentation regarding Ailanto case can be read here.
3.2.2 He said that he couldn’t sell his company called BSM because of the ‘Egyptian Spring’. But these revolts occurred in 2011 and BSM Rosell was sold to a company called DAG on 23 July 2010, according to statements by the president himself. Here is the video.
3.2.3 He openly defender his friend Ricardo Terra Teixeira, for president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), which resigned and moved to Miami when a cause of corruption was demonstrated against him, the their corruption by the ISL case. Teixeira accepted millions in bribes from a marketing company, part of which were deviated to accounts in Andorra, through foundations and bank accounts to the name of his childrens.
* NOTE: During
the interview, there was no mention of the Folha de S.Paulo news, by journalist
Juca Kfour and
published on February 17th 2012. In that article, it was
informed that Sandro Rosell made a 3,8million BRL (US$ 1,75 million) transfer
to eight year old daughter of Ricardo Teixeira, in June 2011. This movement happened after Sandro Rosell was elected and assumed FC
Barcelona’s presidency, therefore, it’s accountable for ethics considerations
that are allocated in the FC Barcelona’s Code of Ethics. The members
association Consulta Barça asked a revision of this case according to the Code
in June 2012 (presentation
can be read here), which has had no response from the club to this
date., is located in the filed in
June 2012 by a collective consultation club, which has not been taken yet no
response.
4. The next
Member’s General Assembly will be held on October 5th 2013. We
expect the new
estatutes to be approved in that meeting. This statutes will secure the position of any
directive board and will act as a shield, protecting them from members that do
not agree with the way they manage the club. That will be possible since the
new statutes will explain that a Vote of No Trust should be supported by the
signature of 15% of total members instead of current 5% reform. This fact
implies that, if a Vote of No Trust is not submitted with the current laws in
force, it will be almost impossible to do so within the regulation held in the
new statutes.
VOTE OF NO
TRUST
Once presented the timeline
of events that led to GO Barça to begin a process of submitting a Vote of No
Trust, below we expose the several reasons we understand constitute enough
backup for this procedure. These are the arguments that demonstrate the lies
and deceptions that the current Board of Directors have been inflicting
over the past three years:
1. Constant
deceptions regarding the matter of Qatar’s associated institutions financing FC
Barcelona through advertising. Members were deceived by saying the UNIFEC would
be replaced by another non profit organization (Qatar Foundation), but then
just one year after, Qatar Foundation was replaced by Qatar’s airline, Qatar
Airways, notably a company for profit. In those matters:
1.1 We
condemn the lack of transparency the club
has notably shown in a very important issue: the advertising agreement signed
with Qatar Sports Investment (QSI), and which was approved in the
Delegate’s Assembly in 2011. Javier
Faus, vicepresident of Economics, never explained properly the assets that were
involved in the price agreed (i.e., members never had the chance of knowing
what was put on sale), assets that have been disclosed with time. The indiscriminate use of those assets show that the Qatar brand is all
over our club. Despite many delegates voted in favour of the agreement, they
did so because they understood the agreement only involved the shirt, as it was
explained that way. But Faus, over a year later in 2012, explained that the
agreement was far more general than members knew in that Assembly.
1.2 We
condemn a serious conflict of interest that
involves Sandro Rosel: During contract negotiations with QSI, the main client
of Rosell’s company, Bonus Sports Marketing (BSM) , was
school football Aspire
Academy, a sort of Masía that is
preparing Qatar’s World Cup in 2022.
1.3 We
condemn the conflict of interest that
involves vice president Javier Faus: he was directing negotiations with QSI
and, at the same time, director of
Inmobiliaria Colonial, owned by U.S. investment fund Colony
Capital . Coincidentally, Colony
Capital owned Paris Saint Germain, club that was sold
prince Al
Thani of Qatar during that time.
1.4 We report that designation of Qatar as home of
2022 World Cup is under investigation by possible fraud:
President Rosell was named, along with nine other major sports administrators,
in an investigation published by prestigious weekly magazine France Football. The article "Qatargate" mentiones
Rosell as one of the people that is involved in the fraudulent designation of
Qatar to host the World Cup in 2022, with the consequent discrediting the good
name and reputation of the club.
1.5 We strongly condemn the false arguments used by
Sandro Rosell to
justify the advertising agreement with QSI:
1.5.1. Supposedly,
the QSI agreement would help to maintain and finance other sports at the club
that are not quite profitable. But only a few months later the
agreement was approved, the club said there would be major budget cuts for
other sports and baseball would be eliminated as sport supported by FC
Barcelona. This fact provoked that former candidates from the last election,
Ferrer, Benedito and Marc Ingla, forgot their differences for a while and
signed an open letter to Barça’s
President of the club defending these sports. Again,
the current Board lied.
1.5.2. QSI
agreement would also avoid raising member’s season tickets. This time he did not lie, but deceived members, since Spanish Super Cup,
which had always been included in season tickets, got eliminated. Therefore,
season ticket holders had to buy tickets for that game and also paying for the
season ticket. This is an indirect way of raising fees for season tickets.
2. Lies and
deception the board concurred for creation and development of the ‘Grada
Jove’ (seats designated to young
members, who are really members of firms, and access to tickets with discount),
which has caused severe problems in stadiums across Europe and has returned
old privileges to members of self-proclamed firms, groups of fans that have
violence as their trademark. These privileges have
not only been reinstalled by the current board, but it also has included
allowing firms to insult the rest of members and attendants to the Camp Nou in
several occasions.
2.1 During
the election campaign, president Sandro Rosell denied twice reports
saying he had an agreement with several firms, including the violent group called
Boixos Boys. A few months ago, and due to the excellent work of journalists Jordi
Borda and Xavier Campos, Radio Catalunya exposed the truth, showing a document signed by
one of the Boixos Boys representatives, among other groups, as well as Sandro
Rosell.
2.2 Journalist Sique Rodriguez broke the news that FC Barcelona was trying to get this group of supporters organized, ignoring the fact that Mossos D’Esquadra, Catalan police, did not advise this as it was too dangerous. These reports were repeatedly denied by vicepresident Jordi Cardoner, blatantly lying for two days until finally admitting that the club had been selling tickets to those groups well below the official price (10 euros instead of 60-70 or even 100 for those seats). After acknowledging being lying in an interview with the same reporter who uncovered the case, Cardoner dared to say this was not so serious and that he wasn’t thinking of handing his resignation.
2.3 Few days after the scandal of the under covered Grada Jove, those groups that had been enjoying benefits held some sort of ‘strike’ at the stadium, and hung the banner “the Camp Nou is a grave yard” with the consent of the club, that did not sent anyone to take it away. The same day, a few meters down, other people hung two banners criticizing the president Rosell and vicepresident Cardoner. These banners, which were not offensive nor covered any sacred advertisement, were removed by security members of FC Barcelona, saying that "it’s an order of Sandro Rosell" . GO Barça thinks that the lack of democratic culture and freedom of expression is remarkably wrong, especially coming from a directive board that had "We are all Barca" as its slogan campaign.
2.2 Journalist Sique Rodriguez broke the news that FC Barcelona was trying to get this group of supporters organized, ignoring the fact that Mossos D’Esquadra, Catalan police, did not advise this as it was too dangerous. These reports were repeatedly denied by vicepresident Jordi Cardoner, blatantly lying for two days until finally admitting that the club had been selling tickets to those groups well below the official price (10 euros instead of 60-70 or even 100 for those seats). After acknowledging being lying in an interview with the same reporter who uncovered the case, Cardoner dared to say this was not so serious and that he wasn’t thinking of handing his resignation.
2.3 Few days after the scandal of the under covered Grada Jove, those groups that had been enjoying benefits held some sort of ‘strike’ at the stadium, and hung the banner “the Camp Nou is a grave yard” with the consent of the club, that did not sent anyone to take it away. The same day, a few meters down, other people hung two banners criticizing the president Rosell and vicepresident Cardoner. These banners, which were not offensive nor covered any sacred advertisement, were removed by security members of FC Barcelona, saying that "it’s an order of Sandro Rosell" . GO Barça thinks that the lack of democratic culture and freedom of expression is remarkably wrong, especially coming from a directive board that had "We are all Barca" as its slogan campaign.
3. Constant breaches of FC
Barcelona’s code of ethics. We then present parts of
a document that denounces several infringements
of FC Barcelona’s code of ethics by the directive board. This document was
presented by member’s association Consulta Barça, which has not received any
reply from the club until this date:
3.1 In an interview
with newspaper Expansion(jan 20th
2010), president Rosell admitted that he owns rights over 5% of tickets
reselling company Viagogo. There
is no evidence that estates that he has ever
denied this information. Viagogo
is a multinational company engaged in the "secondary market" for
sports and concert tickets, acting as an intermediary for reselling tickets
between fans/assistants. Viagogo
has been reported in several countries, to intervene in the sale of `fraudulent tickets”.
A TV show in Britan, called “Dispatches” in Channel 4, denounces
Viagogo’s business in this report video. On the Viagogo
website you can find tickets for
club matches, at the Camp Nou and even finals, at prices that sometimes are
twenty times higher its face value.
3.2 Vicepresident
Jordi Cardoner promised, during the election campaign, that the club would
create a travel agency for
members and fans to travel and get tickets for away games. Here is the video . On March 3rd 2011, the club signed an agreement with company
Halcón Viajes for it to became FC Barcelona’s official travel agency. Over that time we also knew that Halcón
Viajes actively participated in the election campaign, allowing the use of its establishments for the
collection of signatures for Rosell’s candidacy.
3.3 FC Barcelona spokesman Toni Freixa Martin is a partner in the SFFR law firm that, from early 2012, has been advisors to Girona Football Club. Girona plays in Spain’s Liga Adelante, in which also participates Barça B team. This constitutes a clear conflict of interest, according to Article 4.1 of the code of ethics.
3.4 Inaki Urdangarin is still a member of the Foundation FC Barcelona of FC Barcelona as a vocal, while being under insvetigation for allegeded fraud (Noos Case) in 2011. Despite not having been convicted, he has been removed from Spain’s Royal Family website, his name has been eliminated out of a major street in Palma de Mallorca and several reports suggest that Spain’s Royal Family has removed all support towards him in this case. This whole situation is seriously damaging FC Barcelona’s reputation. GO Barça regrets that FC Barcelona has not taken this into account and has separated Undargarin from the Foundation, which clearly constitutes a breach of Article 12.4 of the Code of Ethics.
3.3 FC Barcelona spokesman Toni Freixa Martin is a partner in the SFFR law firm that, from early 2012, has been advisors to Girona Football Club. Girona plays in Spain’s Liga Adelante, in which also participates Barça B team. This constitutes a clear conflict of interest, according to Article 4.1 of the code of ethics.
3.4 Inaki Urdangarin is still a member of the Foundation FC Barcelona of FC Barcelona as a vocal, while being under insvetigation for allegeded fraud (Noos Case) in 2011. Despite not having been convicted, he has been removed from Spain’s Royal Family website, his name has been eliminated out of a major street in Palma de Mallorca and several reports suggest that Spain’s Royal Family has removed all support towards him in this case. This whole situation is seriously damaging FC Barcelona’s reputation. GO Barça regrets that FC Barcelona has not taken this into account and has separated Undargarin from the Foundation, which clearly constitutes a breach of Article 12.4 of the Code of Ethics.
4. Lack of transparency in the
case of the sale of company Bonus Sports Marketing (BSM), which has been
reported as a company participating in plots of Brazil and Qatar. This was a
transaction full of contradictions, as explained by Albert Llimós article in Ara newspaper:
4.1 According
to the newspaper Ara, "On December 13th 2010, Sandro Rosell,
recently appointed FC Barcelona’s President, claimed that BSM had been sold,
during 2010 summer, to DAG, the Dallah Albaraka Group and the holding that payed
for organizational fees in Brazil national team’s friendly games in 2006. Later
it was confirmed that the sale did not occur. Finally, in 2011 it was known that
the company was to be sold to SAL
Offshore Sports Investment , owned
by Shahe Ohannessian. It is a
Lebanese company on which there is no information of any kind, nor are
references to its owner, not even in Lebanon. "It is worth adding that offshore companies have the
characteristic of being registered in countries considered "tax heavens".
In those offshore jurisdictions,
personal information of shareholders and owners of said companies are not
listed on any public record, maintaining the strict confidentiality. Below you can watch three videos on the sale of BSM: link1, link 2 and link 3.
4.2 After BSM
was sold to an offshore company, it
was surprising to discover that Marta
Pineda, Sandro Rosell’s wife, remained
as BSM representative up until February 2013, three years after Sandro Rosell
being appointed as FC Barcelona President.
5. Negligent attitude to defend FC Barcelona’s interests and good name, especially against vicious attacks from Madrid, some of them directly infringed by Real Madrid representatives:
5.1 After a serious of consecutive
games against Real Madrid in 2011, it was clear that the big rivals
exceeded beyond the limits of sportsmanship. They even
complained to UEFA about attitudes of fair play against Barca players. President
Sandro Rosell threatened to break institutional relations with Real
Madrid. But barely two months later, the former Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho
attacked Barça’s head coach, Tito Vilanova, in the eye. Barca did
not take any action against Real Madrid nor break institutional relations,
despite the mockery of the fans of Real Madrid with the banner "Mou,
your finger show us the way " at the Santiago Bernabéu,
which was allowed by Madrid officials. A few months ago, Sandro Rosell said
those ‘games’ against Real Madrid were ‘fun’ and disrectpectful behaviour
towards Barça players and staff members were regarded as ‘part of the game’.
5.2 Press and radio company COPE blatantly accused FC Barcelona players of taking prohibited substances to enhance their performance. Sources from COPE alleged that that information was suggested to be spread by Florentino Perez. Quite rightly, FC Barcelona sued COPE, asking for € 6,190,090 for damages. Incomprehensibly, only a few months later, when it seemed that COPE would lose the trial, the club came to an agreement for an amount of € 200,000. An agreement that does not reach 3.3% of the initial request.
6. Failure to comply with given word by Josep Maria Bartomeu, in a case as sensitive as Eric Abidal’s renewal after a long and difficult disease. On December 2012, Bartomeu said that "the contract renewal of Abidal is written and we will sign it whenever he plays his comeback game"
* NOTE: As of today, Eric
Abidal is playing regularly with Monaco, being their captain and being recalled
again for playing for France.
7. The lack of
transparency in the amount of Neymar signing
7.1 There is
still not a clear indication on the amount payed for the signing of Brazilian
international Neymar. According to FC Barcelona, the fee raises up to 57 million
euros, but Santos alleged they had been payed only
17.1
million. There is no clear
explanation on the 40 million euros that make a difference from both versions. It is important to say, to the
alleged 57 million, it must be added the value of two friendly matches, and 2
million more, as is mentioned in the link above from from Diario La Vanguardia.
7.2 It is
also known today that Barça has also acquired preferential
rights of three young players
from Santos for a total of 7.9 million euros. Attempting to separate the price
of Neymar and the payment for “preferential rights” to three players from
Santos is another way of deceiving. It is
quite clear that, if neymar signing hasn’t been completed, the club wouldn’t
have spent the extra 7.9 million.
7.3 Brazilian
agen Andre Cury was added
to FC Barcelona staff over this signing, which might be a way of paying commissions
for this signing, in a very indirect way. According to Mundo Deportivo, Andre
Cury was Neymar’s trusted
agent.
* NOTE: In FC
Barcelona’s 2012 financial statements, there were some expenses labelled as "payment
for intangible sports
assets " of 10 million euros. The question is obvious: those 10 million
should be added to the total 57 million the signing or they are already
included?
8. Thiago
Alcantara’s buyout clause: When former Barça player
Thiago Alcantara signed a contract renewal in June 2011, the club announced a buyout clause for 90 million euros. Surprisingly,
two years after, it is discovered that in fact the clause was 18 million .. Radio
journalist Catalonia Xavier Campos alert about this 'inconsistency' in this video.
9. Unfair
restrictions for fans living outside Catalunya: The new requirements to become a FC Barcelona member (not
season ticket holder, just a member), which involve kinship (blood relations)
and being a commitment card holder for several years, are
conditions that exclude members that live outside Catalunya and find difficult
to travel to do all the paperwork in person (as the club demands now). Those
conditions constitute discriminatory treatment towards the members living
outside Catalunya and also are improper to values that are inherent at the
clubm such as Universalism. These are the exact words of a GO Barça members and
also a Barça member from across the Atlantic:
"The union of all culés is been strongly
diminished by discriminatory treatment of members and fans outside Catalunya,
and particularly for those who are not season ticket holders. Culés from other
countries are treated like customers rather than fans, as club happily admittes
purchases from them but they are not allowed to belong to the club unless they
surpass countless obstacles. The club shows
no interest of knowing about these peolple, which are counted by millions, on
what are their motivations and reasons to become members. They don’t want a
season ticket, as they cannot assist regurarly to the stadium, so they won’t
apply for that. They just want to belong, without asking anything in return.
There is no chance for a culé living far from Catalunya of becoming a member
today. And that creates fans of first and second rate, creating a clear
division in people that love the club and want to belong to it"
10. Improper
actions held by club officials over the past three years:
10.1 The
Extremadura episode: Sandro Rosell
concurred to ask forgiveness to Extremadura president for something that did
not need forgiveness, slavishly humiliating himself in front of someone who had
insulted Catalunya and it people.
10.2 Homages
being organized to the fogure of president Josep Lluis Núñez, who has
been convicted to six years in prison, and to pay millions in compensation for
fraud in the Hacienda
Case.
10.3 During the Assembly of Delegates held on Octuber 16th
2010, it was promoted a vote to sue former directive board (lead by former
president Joan Laporta) over financial losses. KPMG official, Fernando Ferrer
Garcia, who presented arguments undertaken to vote, admitted in court on
October 24th 2011, that the slides he used to explain main issues of the financial
estatements, and which were used to vote, were provided by the current board of
directors and not supervised nor prepared by KMPG.
11. The process
of reform of the club’s statutes, from the first day, has been a cluster
of deception, half truths and blatant lies. In the
article the statutes of tricksters this matter is explained
in detail.
CONCLUSIONS
1) The disturbing future: From GO Barça we would like to raise concerns of the inminent shielding procedures the president Sandro Rosell is building in order to approve huge projects, such as the Pharaonic project to build a new stadium. A project like that would seriously compromise the club’s future, and could lead to taking irreversible decisions, such as selling irreplaceable players like Leo Messi or even more, selling the whole club to an investor. We honestly fear that a project like that could end the club as we know it, with members, and turn it into a PSG, owned by its same owners.
At Go Barça we are totally convinced that decisions
like those should be taken by all members, not only the board of directors.
2) The disunity
of the club: We are convinced that the continued
disregard of the transcendental figures in the history the club, that led to
the highest social and sporting level we have ever known, is a serious and
blatant attack to the union of all culés. In particular, abuse towards our former coach Pep Guardiola, which comes from inside the club and is
materialized week after week in Barcelona’s main sports media. The union of the Club, a rare thing that, coincidentally, was achieved
under his command and because of his leadership, is currently seriously
affected by these events. More so,
it is not understandable that FC Barcelona does not have institutional
relations with two of its most influential coaches such as Johan Cruyff and
Frank Rijkaard. These practices concur a
worrying attempt of erasing our recent history of success, simply because the
people who wrote it do not share the same vision current directive board has.
3) Loss of
confidence: After all that we've shown we can say that we have lost our confidence towards Sandro Rosell as FC Barcelona president, as
facts are clear to point him out as the president who has done more for
promoting the disunity of the club, which clearly benefits him and his
directive board. We encourage all those
members and supporters who are tired of their practices, to join the GO Barça
family. We encourage them to give us their support, help us and cooperate with
us to give FC Barcelona back to its members and fans, to be a more democratic
club, to assure participation and promote transparency.
As master Puyal said:
"Citizens
have power, citizens have strength, and if we know how to use those gifts, we
can change the future. That is
what democracy should be: we believe that it depends on us".
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