Sala i Martin: "I'm not too smart to be president"

Barcelona board member Xavier Sala i Martín gave last month an interview to Catalan newspaper Avuí.




With those colourful jackets you cannot be the president of Barça.
The soci of Barcelona is too smart to chose a president and a project only based upon the colour of a jacket.

But there are limits.
Please! I won't disguise myself as a priest. I follow the classic rule: shirt and jacket.

You are too smart to be the president of Barça.
"Too smart" is something that doesn't exist. Barça has the historic challenge of changing from a local circus into a global brand like Disney. We're a factory of dreams with the world following the art created by our team with the ball. To make this happen, we need to be among the 5 or 10 football firms who in the coming years will survive the challenge of the globalization. We have to decide if we want to be Betis or Disney. And to take up this big challenge, no one is "too smart".

We're just about business.
No. We are dreams, we are feelings.

You know a lot about economy but not about Barça.
From a very early age, I went to see the games with the season's ticket I got from my uncle. In 1979, I was at the final of the Europen Cup Winner's cup in Basel and one of my tresors is my club member's card of that season signed by Charly Rexach.

Later you gave up being a soci.
In 1985, I went to study in the United States and as I didn't have a lot of money, I didn't pay anymore for my card. I lived from a scholarship and I couldn't afford to spend a lot.

We almost feel sorry for you.
I followed the final of the European Cup in Sevilla from there, through one of those short-wave radios. Now, luckily, when I'm in Manhattan, I can see the games live while listening to Catalunya Ràdio.

Being the president of Barça is that important that you would leave Manhattan?
It's easy to travel by plane these days. If Núñez didn't stop selling apartments, I don't think I should stop giving classes.


Read more:
Who will be the next president of FC Barcelona?


interview: salvador sostres