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| "Questions?" |
There is an investigation going on in Brazil as we all know already. When you mention former CBF President Ricardo Teixeira, then add that Rosell is his friend who was responsible of organizing friendly matches for Brazil, fraud is a given conclusion for many. Yet, two things should be noted: The first is that things are way more serious than just suspensions, and secondly (though as important), no official accusations yet to Sandro Rosell - whose real name is not even Sandro Rosell, as if he needed that to get people more skeptical!
Talking about being skeptical, I am probably the founder of SFAR club, A.K.A. Skeptical fans about Rosell since 2003 when he was a member of the victorious Laporta’s board. The smell of “Nike deals” in Brazil was there since then, and it never went away.
Jumping forward, there was the promise of Rosell to bring transparency to the club after accusing Laporta’s board of manipulating accounts based on a report by an accounting (international) agency which had more suspicious history than the one investigated. He provided an initial accusation, promised to come back with more details that will make everything clear, and we are still waiting…
Zlatan Ibrahimovic sale was another one for me. If you knew for months that this is a player that should be sold, why didn’t you put him in the market earlier? Why waiting till that specific club came hunting for Ibra at a moment where there were no other options, then agreeing a deal my neighbor’s child, Kenny, would have laughed at? That wasn’t for the club’s interest for sure.
Then of course, the big fish, the Qatar foundation deal that turned to be Qatar Airline deal and soon Falafel Qatar, or Qatar mosquito’s shampoo, who knows? Wrote a lot about it before as it was always a suspicious deal.
For me, if you don’t open the market space, put your product there and invite offers, then announce all offers received and pick the one that is best, you are manipulating. Especially if the deal comes from a side you already run business with (Aspire- Qatar). Pulling a deal out of nowhere and propose it to the assembly without giving a chance for other alternatives to present counter –better- offers is a fraud, or at least a misleading process. Regardless if the deal passed thru voting or not, if it is flawed, it is flawed. Yet, when is it the right time to run such investigations?
And here we are at it again, FC Barcelona signs yet another deal with Qatar airways. I will not even bother analyzing whether the deal is the best since signing Messi’s contract on a handkerchief or worse than signing Alexandre Hleb. This deal comes in a suspicious period where there are investigations in Brazil about the Rosell thingy. Of course, no one suggest firing Rosell and electing a new president already, as he is still as innocent as mother Theresa in that case till the court says otherwise. But there is the commonsense argument regarding keeping the eyes opened.
Is it the time for FC Barcelona Assembly to ask Rosell to clarify what is happening in Brazil – from his point of view at least? How far such mess will leave an impact on his focus to do his job well at the club? How far it will touch the club image?
Is it the right time for the Assembly to create a committee that double check previous board decisions, including what mentioned above and make sure no fishy fish fishing there?
At what point the assembly should ask Rosell to hand his responsibilities to the rest of the board, fly to Brazil to sort his mess and if he is back he get his role back? Too early already, but there should be an idea already so the tsunami of Brazil doesn’t hit the Catalan shores.
Yet again, this is politics more than anything else, and that is where Sandro Rosell is still well covered. How long that cover will last? Only time can tell.
You can always check latest rants on @FootballMood
