Joan Laporta Estruch (; born 29 June 1962) is a Spanish politician and current president of
FC Barcelona
Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football.
Founded ...
.
Laporta is a lawyer (he graduated from the
University of Barcelona
The University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat de Barcelona, UB; ; es, link=no, Universidad de Barcelona) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, in Spain. With 63,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities i ...
) with his own firm, Laporta & Arbós, which has a number of notable Spanish firms as clients. He served as MP in the
Parliament of Catalonia
The Parliament of Catalonia ( ca, Parlament de Catalunya, ; es, Parlamento de Cataluña; oc, Parlament de Catalonha) is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 mem ...
between 2010 and 2012.
During his first tenure as president of FC Barcelona, they set a new record for trophies won in a 12-month period, winning 6 in 2009. After departing in 2010, he was
re-elected as club president in 2021.
Career at FC Barcelona
Laporta started his involvement with
FC Barcelona
Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football.
Founded ...
leading the "''Elefant Blau''" ("Blue Elephant"), a group which opposed former president
Josep Lluís Núñez and which, in 1998, tried unsuccessfully a
vote of no confidence
A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...
against him.
2003–2010: First tenure as club president
First season in charge
In the 2003 elections, Laporta did not start as the favourite, but his charisma grew during the electoral campaign and he finally won against the expected victor,
publicist Lluís Bassat, in part because of a widely published (and ultimately unfulfilled) promise to bring
David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham (; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the current president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Known for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending fr ...
to Barcelona. Laporta had the support of other young businessmen of Barcelona, such as
Sandro Rosell
Alexandre "Sandro" Rosell Feliu (; born 6 March 1964) is a Spanish businessman. He earned an MBA degree from ESADE. Rosell ran as senior adviser of Joan Laporta during the 2003 FC Barcelona elections and was the vice-president of sports until Jun ...
. Laporta quickly became a media star, even more than some of the players.
Laporta's first season (2003–04) as president would prove to be a watershed for the club, but not without initial instability. The club situation was one of bitter unhappiness and disappointment amongst both fans and players after the club failed to meet their own standards to match
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid.
Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...
's success in the early 2000s, having not won trophies since 1999.
Arrival of Frank Rijkaard
With the Laporta's arrival, and that of football superstar
Ronaldinho (his star signing after
David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham (; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the current president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Known for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending fr ...
's decision to go to Real Madrid, and
Thierry Henry who decided to remain at Arsenal) as well as new manager
Frank Rijkaard, among others, the club was forced to embark on a new phase, having elected a new, young and largely untested managerial board along with him. Laporta also decided to fight against the threat of violence outside the
Camp Nou
Camp Nou (, meaning ''new field'', often referred to in English as the Nou Camp), officially branded as Spotify Camp Nou for sponsorship and financial reasons, is a football stadium in Barcelona, Spain. It has been the home stadium of FC Barcelo ...
stadium, specially from the ''
Boixos Nois
The Boixos Nois (English: Crazy Boys, from the Catalan word "Bojos" meaning crazy) is an ultras supporter group organised around the La Liga football club FC Barcelona, based in Catalonia. Founded in 1981, they were originally composed of left-le ...
'' (Mad Boys) ultras gang, and faced insults and death threats from them. Police investigation revealed they had planned to kidnap him. To exacerbate the situation, the
2003–04 season began abysmally results-wise, with Laporta constantly having to call for the fans' understanding and patience with him and Rijkaard as the club slowly phased out underachieving players from the old guard in order to rebuild a new-look side around Ronaldinho.
Laporta also had to spur his board to foster creative business ideas to raise revenue, and in recent years, that new style of management eventually succeeded in turning around the fortunes of the club with the team spectacularly returning to form and finishing second after being at the bottom of the table in 2003–04, and then finally managing to win
La Liga titles both in
2004–05 and in
2005–06. During this period, the inherited massive financial debt started to be cut down, and only two players remained from the original team that did not win a major title in six years, with players like
Deco,
Samuel Eto'o and
Edmílson
José Edmílson Gomes de Moraes (born 10 July 1976), known simply as Edmílson, is a Brazilian football executive and former professional footballer. He's currently a technical consultant for São Caetano.
Either a defensive midfielder or a ...
as the new starlets, around Ronaldinho and a core of home-grown players like
Carles Puyol
Carles Puyol Saforcada (, ; born 13 April 1978) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played his entire career for Barcelona. He mainly played as a central defender, but he could also play in either full-back position, mostly as a ri ...
,
Xavi
Xavier Hernández Creus (born 25 January 1980), known as Xavi is a Spanish professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the manager of La Liga club FC Barcelona, Barcelona. Widely con ...
,
Andrés Iniesta,
Víctor Valdés
Víctor Valdés Arribas (; born 14 January 1982) is a Spanish football coach and former professional player, who played as a goalkeeper. Valdés was considered fiercely competitive and demanding, demonstrating great mental strength and concent ...
and
Oleguer
Oleguer Presas Renom (born 2 February 1980), known simply as Oleguer, is a Spanish former footballer. Primarily a central defender, he could also operate as a defensive right-back.
During his career he was mostly associated with Barcelona, wit ...
. The club finally won the
UEFA Champions League on 17 May 2006, only their second time in history, as well as that year's Liga championship.
Barcelona had a long history of avoiding shirt sponsors. In 2006, FC Barcelona announced a five-year agreement with
UNICEF, where the club would donate €1.5 million and the UNICEF logo would feature on their shirts. After Laporta left as president, the club signed shirt sponsorships with
Qatar Foundation
Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development ( ar, مؤسسة قطر) is a state-led non-profit organization in Qatar, founded in 1995 by then-emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and his second wife Moza bint Nasser. Qatar Founda ...
and later
Qatar Airways, which he criticised.
Re-election as club president
There was some discussion about when exactly Laporta's mandate started, with the board of directors holding one opinion and the opposition another. One club member went to the court and, on 19 July 2006, a judge ruled that the first eight days of his presidency in June 2003 counted as the first year of his four-year term; his term had therefore expired and new elections were called. Temporarily, the club was ruled by a management committee led by the economist
Xavier Sala-i-Martin.
The elections were to be held on 3 September 2006, but they turned out to be unnecessary as on 22 August, Barcelona confirmed Laporta's presidency for another four years after no other would-be candidate received the 1,804 signatures required to stand for the elections
Vote of No Confidence
The poor results of the sports sections, especially in football, together with concerns about his leadership style, resulted in a censure motion which took place on 6 July 2008 and was led by Oriol Giralt. Exit polls showed that 60.60% of the 39,389 votes cast were against Laporta. Even though he lost the overall vote, however, the necessary 66% to hold new elections was not reached.
Following the results, it was speculated that Laporta would resign due to pressure from fellow directors. This would have resulted in then vice-president Albert Vicens taking over for Laporta, with
Ferran Soriano replacing Vicens as the main vice-president. These rumours, however, were quickly dismissed by Laporta. On 10 July 2008, 8 of the 17 board members – vice-presidents Albert Vicens, Ferran Soriano and Marc Ingla, and directors Evarist Murtra, Toni Rovira, Xavier Cambra, Clàudia Vives-Fierro and Josep Lluís Vilaseca – resigned following Laporta's confirmation that he will stay on as president of the club despite the opinion of the members. In a press statement, they revealed that they resigned due to "discrepancies in the way to act after the result of the motion".
The return of Pep Guardiola
After dismissing Barcelona head coach
Frank Rijkaard, Laporta appointed the untested and inexperienced
Pep Guardiola
Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of club Manchester City. He is considered one of the greatest managers of all time and holds the re ...
, Barça's team captain at the end of the "Dream Team" era. Guardiola's only experience as a coach was with the
B team
B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It r ...
the previous season (which won promotion from the fourth tier to the third). Although the team started poorly, losing the first match to
Numancia and drawing the second, Barcelona had the best season in its history, winning the
treble
Treble may refer to:
In music:
*Treble (sound), tones of high frequency or range, the counterpart of bass
*Treble voice, a choirboy or choirgirl singing in the soprano range
*Treble (musical group), a three-piece girl group from the Netherlands
*T ...
of La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League.
Supercopa de España
The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...
and
UEFA Super Cup titles followed in August, as well as a
FIFA Club World Cup
The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...
victory in December. He was succeeded by Sandro Rosell in 2010.
2021–2022: Second tenure as club president, a new hope
In November 2020, Laporta announced president candidacy for the
2021 FC Barcelona presidential election
The 2021 FC Barcelona presidential election took place on 7 March 2021 for electing the 42nd President of the club.
History
Initially the election was to be held on 24 January 2021 but was later postponed due to the increased cases of COVID-19 i ...
s. In January 2021, he officially entered the presidential race after presenting 10,252 signatures out of which 9,625 were validated and was the favorite to win the presidential election. On 7 March, Laporta won the presidential election, in which he received 54.28% of the vote ahead of Víctor Font and Toni Freixa who received 29.99% and 8.58% of the vote respectively. He succeeded
Josep Maria Bartomeu
Josep Maria Bartomeu Floreta (born 6 February 1963) is a Spanish entrepreneur, and a former president of football club FC Barcelona. He started his presidency in 2014, following the resignation of Sandro Rosell; he held the post until his resign ...
who resigned in October 2020 to avoid facing a vote of no confidence from the club members.
Political activities
Laporta has long been involved in politics. In 1996, he joined the
Independence Party
Independence Party may refer to:
Active parties Outside United States
* Independence Party (Egypt)
* Estonian Independence Party
* Independence Party (Finland)
* Independence Party (Iceland)
* Independence Party (Mauritius)
* Independence Part ...
, formed by
Pilar Rahola
Pilar Rahola i Martínez (; Barcelona, 21 October 1958) is a Spanish journalist, writer, and former politician and MP.
Career
Rahola studied Spanish and Catalan Philology at the Universitat de Barcelona. She has published several books in Sp ...
and
Àngel Colom
Angel is a given name meaning "angel", "messenger". In the English-speaking world Angel is used for both boys and girls.
From the medieval Latin masculine name ''Angelus'', which was derived from the name of the heavenly creature (itself derived ...
, former members of the
Republican Left of Catalonia.
Laporta has long held ambitions to enter
Spanish politics
The politics of Spain takes place under the framework established by the Constitution of 1978. Spain is established as a social and democratic sovereign countryFirst article. wherein the national sovereignty is vested in the people, from wh ...
after leaving office as president of FC Barcelona. He has in the past been outspoken about his political affiliations: he supports
Catalan independence from Spain. FC Barcelona is seen by many as a symbol of
Catalonia, a generally accepted fact which Laporta often emphasizes but has been criticized by those who think that Barça should remain neutral from a political standpoint.
Following the end of his second term as president, Laporta formed the independence-seeking political party ''Democràcia Catalana'' (Catalan Democracy). In the summer of 2010, Laporta's party merged with other extra-parliamentary pro-independence parties and grassroots movements into a political platform called
Catalan Solidarity for Independence
Catalan Solidarity for Independence (Catalan language, Catalan: ''Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència'', ''SI''; ) is an electoral coalition in Catalonia, founded in the summer of 2010 as an outcome of the grassroots social movement that in ...
. Laporta was elected its president.
In the
Catalan elections of 28 November 2010, the new party managed to win 4 seats in the 135-member
Catalan Parliament, making it the sixth largest party out of seven. Laporta was elected in the
circumscription of Barcelona.
In 2011, Laporta stepped down as president of the
Catalan Solidarity for Independence
Catalan Solidarity for Independence (Catalan language, Catalan: ''Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència'', ''SI''; ) is an electoral coalition in Catalonia, founded in the summer of 2010 as an outcome of the grassroots social movement that in ...
and left the party.
Criticism
Laporta's management of the sports sections of the club, especially the
basketball section, has been controversial. On 2 June 2005, he faced the resignation of five members of the club's board of directors, including
Sandro Rosell
Alexandre "Sandro" Rosell Feliu (; born 6 March 1964) is a Spanish businessman. He earned an MBA degree from ESADE. Rosell ran as senior adviser of Joan Laporta during the 2003 FC Barcelona elections and was the vice-president of sports until Jun ...
. They accused him of having changed for the worse as a person, having adopted authoritarian traits and harbouring ambitions of power.
In October 2005, he faced a scandal when his brother-in-law and member of the board of directors in charge of security, Alejandro Echevarría, was revealed to be a member of the
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...
Foundation. After several denials by Echevarría and Laporta, contested by documents shown by a former member of the board of directors, Laporta was finally forced to accept Echevarría's resignation. Echevarría continued, however, to be close to the club and he organized the security during the celebrations of the
2005–06 La Liga
The 2005–06 La Liga season, the 75th since its establishment, started on 27 August 2005 and finished on 20 May 2006 due to all top-flight European leagues ending earlier than the previous season because of 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Teams
Twenty t ...
championship.
Laporta's own political history added to the complications surrounding the Echevarría scandal, as his politics are diametrically opposed to those implied by Echevarría's membership of the Francisco Franco Foundation. Laporta is a self-described Catalan nationalist and has been identified on several occasions as supporting the independence of Catalonia from Spain. In the early 1990s, he and fellow Catalan politicians
Pilar Rahola
Pilar Rahola i Martínez (; Barcelona, 21 October 1958) is a Spanish journalist, writer, and former politician and MP.
Career
Rahola studied Spanish and Catalan Philology at the Universitat de Barcelona. She has published several books in Sp ...
and
Ángel Colom founded the now-defunct Partit per la independencia, which supported Catalan separatism. He was also an active participant at the controversial
Frankfurt Book Fair of 2007, at which
Catalan language and culture were the special featured invitees, but not including other Catalonia-based authors who wrote in other languages, such as Spanish. At the fair, Laporta stated that he "hopes that FC Barcelona continues to be a tool to promote the Catalan language and culture" and to the contrary, he would feel obligated "to create the Catalan Republic of Barcelona".
Another criticism Joan Laporta faced was coming back to his presidential chair in 2021 for
FC Barcelona
Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football.
Founded ...
club, which already had big financial issues and its best football player Lionel Messi on the verge of leaving, with promises to turn the situation around and persuade Messi to stay. He failed the promise, Messi left for another club making some fans angry and upset. Messi's exit from Barcelona led to
Jaume Llopis, a former member of the
Espai Barca Commission, to resign from his post stating that the club and the president did not do their all to keep the Argentine at the club
According to OK Diario, leading Spanish investigative newspaper, Laporta would be implicated in a case of fraud of more than EUR 1,000,000 from a Dubai businessman together with a character of dubious reputation, Rayco Garcia Cabrera, who already committed similar crimes by falsifying Real Madrid contracts in 2015 in Oman and Tanzania.
Personal life
Laporta was married to Constanza Echevarría and has three sons, Pol, Guillem and Jan. Laporta's son Pol is a footballer who plays as an
attacking midfielder.
Trophies won by club during presidency
*
La Liga
**
2004–05,
2005–06,
2008–09,
2009–10
*
Primera División (women)
The Primera División de la Liga de Fútbol Femenino, currently known as Liga F (finetwork Liga F for sponsorship reasons), is the highest level of league competition for women's football in Spain. It is the women's equivalent of the men's La Li ...
**
2020–21
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
,
2021–22
*
Copa del Rey
**
2008–09,
2020–21
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
*
Supercopa de España
The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...
**
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
,
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
,
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
*
UEFA Champions League
**
2005–06,
2008–09
*
UEFA Women's Champions League
**
2020–21
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
*
UEFA Super Cup
**
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
*
FIFA Club World Cup
The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...
**
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
*
EHF Champions League
**
2020–21
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laporta, Joan
1962 births
Living people
Lawyers from Barcelona
FC Barcelona presidents
20th-century Spanish lawyers
Members of the Parliament of Catalonia
University of Barcelona alumni
People named in the Paradise Papers