Vazquez Montalban: a classic of Barcelona for turbulent times
By Jordi Osua
The closure of the transfer market and the halt of the league due to international commitments offer us a break to reflect with a certain emotional distance on the present and future of FC Barcelona. They say that great players are those who are able to apply the pause to their game and then speed it up once they have evaluated what is the best decision to make. At this time a certain disenchantment or disorientation is detected in the environment of the club. We could even talk about a crisis, a period of change that surely offers an opportunity to rebuild itself by going back to its roots and recovering the identity of "more than a club". An unknown past for the new generations who have grown up in the shelter of the intoxication of success,
The impossibility of renewing the contract of Leo Messi has been the last straw in the patience of many Catalan fans and has exposed the weakness of an institution that in recent years was taken to 10 as a solution to all its contradictions. Since Joan Laporta won the elections in 2003 with a board that also included presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, we have enjoyed the best Bar?a in history, but we have also reached a dead end. Throughout its history, the club has found others and has always overcome them by putting in front the emotional bond that unites its social mass. Beyond looking for culprits, an attitude that often avoids the search for solutions,
From my point of view, the current crisis is serious because it affects the vital dimensions of the club: institutional, sporting, economic, social and symbolic. At the institutional level, during these years there have been two motions of censure, a resignation, an action of responsibility - on the horizon there is the possibility of another - and several complaints to the courts.
In the field of sports, the team is no longer the world reference admired everywhere and of which everyone wanted to be a part. The first to leave the ship was Neymar, then Leo Messi sent a bureaufax explaining his desire to leave the club and finally could not renew the last survivor of that magical trident that emerged from La Masia that won the podium of the Golden Ball. All this seasoned with painful defeats by a thrashing in the Champions League that reached its zenith with the humiliating 2-8 defeat against Bayern Munich.
Economically, the pandemic has called into question a management model based on the exponential increase in revenue without spending control, which has led to record indebtedness and the inability to strengthen and even enroll players like Messi, the best asset to get sponsorships and merchandising sales. All this with the need to invest in the reform of a stadium that allows to generate more resources, under the control of guarantors who are not willing to lose money and with the threat of conversion into a Sports Corporation. Bar?a is no longer the richest club in the world and now helplessly attends the display of PSG's economic muscle - the new biggest antagonist in the football business -, City, United, Chelsea and even , Real Madrid.
In the social area we witness a confrontation with the supporters clubs, the true soul of popular Barcelona, and also an anger of the fans that manifests itself in whistles to certain footballers who are responsible for the sporting and economic situation. But the most serious, no doubt, is a disaffection that threatens to empty the stadium again as it did last century. So far, more than 25,000 partners have apro-fi-tat pandemic not attend the stadium this season.
Finally, there is also a loss of club symbolism. This fact may be the most serious, in the sense that in other historical moments where there have been similar difficulties, the identity component has been key to overcoming obstacles in other areas. The Catalan political situation has led Bar?a to stop being "the symbolic army of Catalonia" because the country's emotional temperature is no longer measured at the Camp Nou but at public demonstrations. In addition, the tune with Florentino P?rez in relation to the Superliga or the CVC investment fund, is weakening the congenital antagonism with Real Madrid with whom we now go hand in hand to fight UEFA and the clubs owned by big millionaires .
In V?zquez Montalb?n's writings dedicated to reflecting on Bar?a we can find reference points to orient ourselves in the middle of this labyrinth. One of the most clairvoyant in relation to the sense of the Bar?a fans is "Bar?a is our club". This is the first commandment of the "Decalogue of the cul?" (Ed. Columna, 1992), a text written a few hours after the elimination in the preliminaries of the European Cup by the CSKA, which offers some signs to guide us . Proposals drafted from the hope of future times and the cults who must know that we are committed to scarcity and wealth for a metaphorical but real church.
At the institutional level, Montalb?n argues that the membership of the fan cannot depend on a specific board of directors or a specific president. That is why he proposes maintaining his commitment to the club when there is a leader who is opposed to his own ideas, such as "a real proof of belonging to a community". Obviously, this does not mean that the disagreement with its management cannot be expressed, but at no time can a sporting defeat be desired to bring down a president (an accusation of which had to be defended on more than one occasion). .
As for the sports pitch, beyond affiliations or phobias for certain players who often respond to particular aspirations, the Barcelona writer recommends taking on the current team as “our team”. Even accepting it in the most painful and inexplicable defeats such as Benfica, Metz, Steaua (now we could add those of Liverpool and Bayern). On the other hand, he was clear about the sports policy that needed to be implemented: a large number of players in the squad who knew how to play by heart according to a game system implemented in the lower categories reinforced with some of the best players in the world in key positions such as the front or center of the defense.
In the economic field, V?zquez Montalb?n insists that the conversion of the institution into an SAE subject to hidden interests must be avoided, a fact that would mean "distorting the club to a higher degree than it could represent losing the category in the league." Therefore, before weakening athletically, transferring players or paying worse salaries, than losing ownership of the club. At this time we do not know to what extent loans linked to mutual funds pose a risk to a model in which partners still have the final say.
Socially, Montalb?n recommends fighting to prevent the Camp Nou from being invaded by the “immense sadness of an empty cathedral” when suffering a bad season. And, even less, to leave the Barcelona militancy in the hands of violent groups that do not seek to guard a sentimental memory but to break free. Fortunately, it seems that at this point there is a total consensus within Barcelona, despite some unfortunate episodes in some displacement. He also encourages the Catalans to apostolate their membership and aspire to have a Bar?a fan club anywhere on the planet. In this sense, it is necessary to value a movement that represents the club around the world and gives it visibility.
Finally, at the level of identity, the Barcelona journalist states emphatically that, despite the existence of fans of a club who are only for their victories or sporting defeats, “if you are from Bar?a for its history, you assume everything which means that Bar?a is more than a club ”. A link that involves accepting its national symbolic value and recognizing the Catalan differential fact. Barcelonaism must be an instrument at the service of a socially and culturally integrative Catalanism. Assuming the most nationalist claim by political leaders, the symbolism of the entity is in the hands of the so-called "ethnic footballers", that is, players of the plant, Catalan or not, with whom fans can identify and who represent a temperament own of the country and the club. However, identities are also constructed anthropologically around an external enemy capable of agglutinating internal forces. No matter how many common economic interests there are, recovering the antagonism with Real Madrid typical of Barcelona's sentiment is essential.
Surely La Masia would be one of the haystacks around which an institutional consensus could be reached, recovering sporting excellence, improving the economy, appeasing social disillusionment and vindicating the club's symbolism. The attribution of the number 10 to Ansu Fati by the club seems to go in that direction. In recent years it seemed that the Catalans had abandoned the historical pessimism forged by some inexplicable misfortune. The loss of revenue generated by the pandemic could be one more episode that would confirm this tragic fate. However, it may be an opportunity offered to us to reconnect with ourselves and regain a sense of identity that had been buried under the weight of the economy.
Often, in the face of some controversial situations linked to Barcelona or to the political and social life of our country, many people wonder what V?zquez Montalb?n would say. Surely it would be too daring to put in the voice of the Barcelona writer opinions and judgments about our days or even there would be the risk of falling into an instrumentalization of the character to defend certain interests. Instead, we can turn to his literary and journalistic legacy to see what he said in circumstances similar to the current ones and, despite the passage of time, let us be challenged by his answers. In turbulent times it is recommended to resort to the classics. Well, one of the most recognized and most prestigious is certainly Montalb?n.
https://www.lesportiudecatalunya.ca...c-del-barcelonisme-per-a-temps-convulsos.html
