Guixa: "The trophies have hidden the instability"

This blog had an exclusive interview with Barcelona presidential candidate Jaume Guixà.


PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND You are a professor of business management at the Polytechnic University of Catalunya, an architect and a lawyer. Three jobs that seem very different. Is there a link between the three that we don't see?
Throughout my life, my intellectual interests have led me to get involved in different areas. Apart from my studies and professional activities, I am also a painter in my spare time.

REASONS TO TAKE PART IN THE ELECTIONS Why are you running for president of FC Barcelona? All observers are talking about Sandro Rosell and Alfons Godall, with Ferran Soriano and Jaume Ferrer as possible outsiders, and no one really thinks you have a chance to become the next president. You participate to make people hear another voice? Out of vanity? Out of love for the club? You expect someone from the other candidates to give you a seat in the board or in a commission?
We present our candidacy because we want to guarantee the dignity, the prestige of the club, the respect for the professional job done by the players and the coach and the protection of the club member, because the member is the true owner of the club and we want to give the club back to its owner.

As for the 'pools' that are out there, I think it is too early to know who will be the strongest candidate and the experience of past elections shows that the early predictions are unreliable. In the year 2003, Lluís Bassat started with a big advantage and with a ‘dream team’ and in the end it was Joan Laporta and his ‘Elefant Blau', who won the election starting from scratch.

I participate because I believe that during the mandate of Joan Laporta, the club has lost many things at the institutional level that need to be recovered by an institution with the fame of FC Barcelona.

I expect nothing from the other candidates. Ours is an independent candidacy and we are proving that we have ideas, a team and resources that will allow us to get to the final vote. If any good Barcelona fan shares our ideas and wants to join our project, he will be welcomes.

YOUR TEAM You have already confirmed ex-vice president Jaume Sobrequés as a member of your team. Other ex-directors of Barca will join you?
Jaume Sobrequés, Emma Gamper and Joan Segarra will be there with us and in the near future other big names linked to Barcelona will be made public.

ANTI-LAPORTISM You present yourself as the real alternative for the "laportism", as the only candidate (so far) who has not been linked with current president Joan Laporta. You also say that all board members have to leave. Why do you take this radical position? The term of Laporta has been a total failure for you, with the exception of the team's results? The problem is not just a problem of public image, of the personality of the president, but a management problem that affects all areas and the entire board?
I don't think it's a radical position, I just want to make my position clear. The board of Mister Laporta will go down in the history of the club as the most unstable one ever. Fortunately, the sporting successes have hidden all this, but it's a fact that there are only four or five directors left of those who started six years ago.

We have witnessed a little opera of resignations, of escapes, of firings and of spying that harms the prestige of the club. Moreover, the statements of Mister Laporta and his links to the world of politics have caused a division among the Barça fans. I think it's fine he wants to do politics, but then he should leave the club.

OTHER CANDIDATES You have said that you have no intention at all of making a deal with another candidate. However, if you would have to choose, to whom do you feel the closest in terms of personality and/or club model: Jaume Ferrer, Alfons Godall, Sandro Rosell or Ferran Soriano?
At this moment few details are known about the programs or proposals of the club members who have presented themselves as pre-candidates, but I do not identify with any of them.

Did you hold talks with other potential presidential candidates like Josep Maria Minguella, Jordi Majò, Jaume Llaurado or Jordi Medina to try to form a joint candidacy?
No.

SPORTS DIRECTOR Why are you so hard for Txiki Begiristain? Can't he be considered as one of the main architects of a squad that has triumphed under both Frank Rijkaard and Josep Guardiola?
I think that we have to take our hats off for the work done by Pep Guardiola, his staff and the players, and that's why I say that they have all my confidence and support, but from Guardiola up I don't want anybody to stay.

If Txiki does not satisfy you, what is the profile a sports director should have in your opinion? And who will be the new sports director if you would be elected president? Would you choose to give more powers to the coach, Josep Guardiola, and to eliminate the function of sports director?
The position of sports director is important because he is the link between, on the one hand, the squad and the coach and, on the other hand, the board, which is why I think it's difficult to do without the position.

Our technical department will be divided in three sections, one for the first team, one for the second team and a third one for the other youth categories, all of which will be headed by members of the 'Dream Team'.

COACH Do you have a B plan in case Guardiola will not accept to renew his contract if you're elected?
In principle Pep has already given his word that he will renew and for us, the word of Pep is more than enough, so we count on him for next season.

this was the first part of this interview. you can read the second part here.

Read more:
More about Guixa
Three 'Dream Team' players in candidacy Guixa
Guixa: "The financial situation worries me"