A long relationship that, dissected, goes through phases of passion, respect, turbulence and finally foreign alliances that lead to betrayals and fights over the years. This could be the synthesis of Scenes from a Marriage (Ingmar Bergman) but taken to the double terrain of football and the Iberian map it loses sophistication and exudes testosterone. Silly, Joan Laporta and Florentino Pérez have been intermittently captaining two transatlantic teams for more than 20 years, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, whose colossal magnitude goes beyond what they apparently represent, two football clubs. If it were only that... Antagonistic in substance and form, as are also the entities, their values and their respective social masses, Laporta (64 years old) and Florentino (79) have been fond of each other, they have collaborated, they have looked at each other with suspicion and now they are going through a stage that, if one had not been accompanying them in their adventures and misadventures for more than 20 years, would believe irreducible.
Florentino first came to power in 2000 at 53 years of age; while Laporta did it in 2003 when he was barely 40. The former made silence his main instrument, he had and has so much money, influence and power as a businessman that speaking little fueled his reputation as a “superior being.” Everything would be dismantled a few months ago, when at a press conference motivated by the last elections (the first in 20 years), an individual without a network and nervous appeared before the general public who exposed his worst defects, among them arrogance, machismo and an unleashed fanaticism.
Laporta, for his part, has barely considered silence an option. A lawyer by profession, he knew immediately that his life would have complete meaning taking the reins of FC Barcelona, and from the beginning he made his privileged loquacity his hallmark. Laporta has a public image with few doubles, he shows himself as he is, which for his fans is wonderful and for his detractors, not so much, especially for episodes in which his naturalness descends into more debatable terrain.
Each one in their own way, they defend the fort with all their weapons, and they are united by personalistic ways of governing without nuances. But while the Madrid fan is guided by the work and legacy of Santiago Bernabéu, the Barcelona fan has Johan Cruyff as a mentor and universal reference. Perhaps that is why Florentino only wants to win (he has had 15 coaches) and Laporta attaches aesthetics (five coaches and the search for a model) to the same objective.
Sometimes their interests have converged, as happened at the beginning of Laporta's current mandate, which he certainly achieved on the back of a giant banner displayed in the center of Madrid (Want to see you again) at which Florentino secretly whistled. The rejection of the agreement with CVC as economic manna proposed by the League and the multimillion-dollar and savior project (today neither one thing nor another) of the Super League, united the two presidents like few times before in history against Javier Tebas and UEFA, a challenge that Madrid has maintained in the case of Tebas, crossing all kinds of limits.
The death of the European Super League broke the alliance between Barça and Madrid, a club that took advantage of the Negreira case (unacceptable clumsiness of up to four Barça directives that is still in court today) to attack its usual rival with everything. Obsession can be measured through a varied repertoire: official television harassing referees for years with impunity, banners in the stands with messages written in the box, a 50,000-page report sent to UEFA and José Mourinho, the last to get on the train, lustfully collecting all the arguments to swallow them in the press room.
At Barcelona they defend their innocence, they assure that everything is due to a campaign to hide Madrid's bad sporting moment, without major titles two seasons ago, and they counterattack by taking Florentino to court for a battery of statements ("I have been here for I don't know how many seasons and I have only won seven Champions Leagues and seven Leagues, which could have been 14 because seven Leagues have been stolen from me") that could lead to a criminal complaint.
Having said that, it goes without saying that Florentino Pérez will not be in the Spotify Camp Nou box tonight.
