The tension between players and the club precedes the current presidency.
Under Laporta?s predecessor, Josep Maria Bartomeu, Uruguay-based communications company i3 Ventures was accused of creating fake online media accounts to defend the record of Bartomeu and undermine opponents, including players such as Pique and Messi, as well as rival candidates for the presidency. The company denies this.
Bartomeu said it was only a form of social media monitoring and no attacks had been requested. Nonetheless, it led to a spate of director resignations and he spent a night in jail in March of last year as police investigated the affair.
Striker Luis Suarez, meanwhile, was left furious when Barcelona?s then-coach Koeman told him in a 40-second phone call in the summer of 2020 that he would no longer be needed at the club. Nobody from Bartomeu?s board called to thank Suarez for scoring almost 200 goals in Barcelona colours.
The players themselves have not always been faultless. For example, there was a period under previous coaches where they did not train because it was deemed too cold outside, while some felt there was some kind of unwritten rule not to tackle Messi too hard in sessions.
In light of these experiences, it is all the more remarkable this summer to witness the extent to which the world?s most talented footballers remain besotted by the idea of playing for Barcelona.
In January, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang took a flight to Catalonia on deadline day to accelerate a move to Arsenal and accepted terms that will see him paid less in the short term. Adama Traore joined Barcelona, his hometown club where he was on the books in his youth, on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers in January and accepted a pay cut in the hope he would play well enough to earn a permanent move back to Camp Nou, an aspiration which proved unsuccessful.
When Christensen signed on a free transfer, the unveiling was accompanied by a note he?d written as an eight-year-old declaring his ambition to play for Barcelona. Raphinha, meanwhile, saw Leeds agree a fee with fellow Premier League side Chelsea, but he held on for several weeks until Barcelona were able to fund a transfer.
In the latter case, their hopes were aided by the fact Raphinha?s representative, Deco, is a former Barcelona player, a friend of Laporta and a current employee at the club. Deco is said to have waived a direct agent?s fee for this specific transfer.
Deco is their external scout for South America and part of meetings with Alemany and Jordi Cruyff, the technical secretary, over transfer targets.
It does, at times, seem to be a small world at Barcelona under Laporta, whose son Guim was the assistant coach of Gabon?s national team previously while Deco was working as an advisor to that African country?s football association.
This is all said to have helped when it came to edging Gabon international Aubameyang?s move from Arsenal over the line in January.
For so long, Barcelona and Real Madrid have been defined by the things that separate them, yet in recent times, these two clubs, at least at presidential level, appear to have more in common.
On the domestic front, Madrid chief Perez and Barcelona counterpart Laporta are regularly jousting with La Liga?s chairman Javier Tebas, while Madrid and Barcelona, along with Italian giants Juventus, are the only clubs who remain publicly committed to the European Super League project.
Domestically, Madrid and Barcelona both believe they are the key generators of interest and revenue for Spanish football and therefore deserve larger slices of the financial pie.
This is arguably the key reason Madrid, in particular, have clashed with La Liga during Tebas? nine years at the helm, with the club filing dozens of legal complaints against the league.
Laporta?s relationship with Tebas has also been fraught, most notably earlier this summer when Tebas suggested Barcelona could not afford to sign Lewandowski. Laporta, for his part, is said to have started to send documents to La Liga in the Catalan language rather than Spanish.
Barcelona?s own dedication to a Super League is long-standing.
When Bartomeu resigned as president in October 2020, he publicly stated during his farewell speech that the club had agreed to join a Super League.
During Laporta?s recent successful presidential campaign, he said he would renew Messi?s contract and this was partly guided by the fact he had anticipated ?300million worth of signing-on money from JP Morgan, the bank that was financing the mooted breakaway. As such, the Super League?s collapse had implications for Barcelona that arguably went a long way to them losing their Argentine superstar.
Perhaps most intriguing is that Key Capital, a Madrid-based advisory and brokerage firm, oversaw the auction that led to Barcelona selling that share of their future TV income to Sixth Street.
Key Capital has a long association with Perez and one of the company?s partners, Anas Laghrari, was even thought to be in the running to be general secretary of the Super League, with Perez set to be the chairman. The Financial Times has previously reported that Perez has known Laghrari since he was born, after previously working with the financier?s father on construction projects in Morocco.
As such, hardcore Madrid supporters may find it ironic that close associates of Perez have greased the wheels of Barcelona?s recovery this summer, but they should arguably be pleased, as Madrid need their traditional sparring partners to be in better health to drive the revenue of both clubs, the domestic league and any future Super League.
Separate sources speculated that these moves could weaken Barcelona in the long term.
More likely, however, is that Madrid and Barcelona consider themselves ?frenemies? (friendly enemies), who are united by what they perceive to be the threat posed by clubs who benefit from owners linked to nation states, such as PSG and Manchester City, which they both argue has triggered inflation in salaries and transfer fees.
In Las Vegas last month, the two clubs unusually met for a pre-season friendly and that day, July 23, there was a lunch meeting of Perez, Laporta and Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli.
Between the three executives, there is also concern that England?s Premier League, due to its huge broadcast revenue, is becoming a Super League of its own. Their three clubs continue to seek a landmark victory against UEFA in the European Court of Justice and hints of the bitterness have even emerged even in pre-season scheduling.
For other clubs across Europe, fixtures against the three Super League hold-outs appear to be frowned upon. It is not a coincidence that the three ?rebel? clubs did not play any of Europe?s other top clubs during their respective visits to the US, with the two guests being Mexican sides Club America and Club Deportivo Guadalajara (Chivas).
In a court filing in New York in mid-April, American businessman Charlie Stillitano alleged that Aleksander Ceferin, the UEFA president, had declared ?war? on him for attempting to organise matches in North America featuring the Super League hold-out clubs.
The New York Times reported that a text message from Ceferin to Stillitano had been included in the lawsuit.
In it, Ceferin wrote: ?I have heard about your ?business? with the three clubs. Those clubs didn?t ?cause issues with UEFA?. They tried to destroy UEFA, football, and me personally. It?s a shame that you don?t understand it. The fact that you work with them means that me, UEFA or anyone I can have influence on will not have any business or private relation with you until you?re on the other side.?
Ceferin previously told the New York Times: ?When I realised that he is actually cooperating with them at the same time, I decided to finish any relationship with him. I have more important things to deal with than dealing with Stillitano.?
There have been other curious things happening.
Barcelona invited Serie A?s Roma to play in their traditional curtain-raising Gamper Trophy game at Camp Nou on August 6.
In mid-June, Roma agreed to play, and the Italian side?s coach Jose Mourinho, a one-time Barcelona assistant and formerly in charge of Real Madrid, was useful in generating interest and ticket sales. Yet less than two weeks later, Roma suddenly pulled out, citing calendar difficulties. Barcelona did not buy this excuse and publicly said they would consider legal action for losses incurred.
The suspicion at Camp Nou, and among the Super League organisers, is that UEFA, as well as the European Club Association chairman (and PSG president) Nasser Al-Khelaifi leaned on Roma?s American president Dan Friedkin to get him to take their side in the ongoing dispute. Officially, however, Roma?s statement attributed the decision ?as a consequence of the need to modify the plan for summer friendly matches?.
Roma had already spent a fortnight training in Portugal and then flew to Israel for an exhibition match against Premier League club Tottenham, another of Mourinho?s former employers, last weekend. Hopping across to Barcelona after all that was considered excessive in the new light shed by the release of the 2022-23 Serie A fixtures that have Roma playing away from home in four of their first six league games.
Perhaps, then, it was not a political decision coherent with Roma?s stance as one of the clubs that came out fighting against the Super League. And, if this was a political decision, why would they have signed up for the Gamper Trophy in the first place?
Nevertheless, it was curious that fellow Italians AC Milan also pulled out of participating in the Soccer Champions Tour with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus in the US, an event worth millions in commercial and sponsorship revenue.
UEFA insist they have never encouraged or discouraged a club to play friendly games with any other club.
These events are just a snapshot of the tensions currently gripping European football and executives across Europe are sharpening their knives as they glare at Barcelona.
The Catalans? spending has, for example, provided fuel for clubs such as PSG and City, who are the regular recipient of condemnation from La Liga chief Tebas, who described Mbappe?s contract renewal in Paris this summer, having been widely expected to join Real Madrid as a free agent, as an ?insult to football?.
In a statement, La Liga said: ?It is scandalous that a club like PSG, which last season reported losses of more than ?220million after accumulating losses of more than ?700million in prior seasons (while reporting sponsorship income at doubtful valuation), with a squad cost of around ?650million for this season, can close such an agreement, while those clubs (Real Madrid) that could afford the hiring of the player without seeing their wage bill compromised are left without able to sign him.?
The statement continued: ?La Liga will file a complaint against PSG before UEFA, the French administrative court and fiscal authorities and European Union authorities to continue to defend the economic ecosystem of European football and its sustainability.?
Privately, PSG think Barcelona?s spending this summer, funded by mortgaging their future, raises even more questions about the sustainability of football.
One source close to the French club told The Athletic they feel Barcelona are just a corporate version of the Glazers, the American family who have owned Manchester United since 2005 ? a ?fan/member? backed model that is actually beholden to Wall Street.
Intriguingly, Laporta?s relationship with PSG is the most progressive of the three Super League clubs and there had, for some time, been hope that Barcelona may be the most open to giving the notion up, particularly compared to the dogmatism of Agnelli and Perez. For now, however, it has gone quiet.
Speaking to The Athletic in April, Al-Khelaifi said: ?We can talk about FFP but we should also look at other investment models, particularly the debt. A big Spanish club came to me here at the ECA General Assembly and said, ?Nasser, Barcelona are ?1.5billion in debt, now they are taking another loan, now they may do stuff on their stadium for another billion. That is the key, to stop clubs going into bankruptcy and have cost control?. This is what I was told by another Spanish club yesterday!?
This summer will only set tongues wagging further yet.
