Ingla: "We will change the style of government"

Barcelona presidential candidate Marc Ingla gave an interview to Catalan sports paper El 9 Esportiu.


Club members are holding you at the street after you announced your candidacy?
Yes, and the outcome is very positive. When talking face to face you realize that there was a real need for a solid and capable candidacy that ensures a genuine continuity of the current success model. It is good that there is a candidate besides the offical one and the one that wants the complete rupture and is opposed to the current model.

It's a challenge that the campaign will be quite short?
It is a small challenge, but it is better like this. The member should not be thinking about policies the whole time. It is important for the club that the member participates, but it is good that there is no competition going on, so that voters can analyze well the options and make the best decision without being distracted by sports isues.

The crucial element of the candidacy is a core of experienced people who are already known by the members. What do you want to transmit by that?
That we are the candidacy of the four most influential vice-presidents in the last seven years. That we have no link with the current president and that we offer the members a project for the future. That we will give total continuity to the sporting projects, trying to strengthen them. And that we will change what needs to be changed.

What needs to be changed?
The style of government. We will clearly change it. And in addition, we will give the club a new economic boost and make Barça the most participatory club in the world.

Your slogan is "More Barça than ever", more participation than ever... Which things Barça should have less of?
Less overuse of the office of president. The board should have more common sense than ever and put the interests of the club before the ideologies of the directors. We have to make a leap forward and achieve institutional excellence, which is what we propose.

Laporta said a few days ago that people should not forget that the one who represents the continuity is Jaume Ferrer...
The member should decide on the adjectives. We want to explain our project. The project of Ferrer is a continuism that has a lack of substance. It's a good person, but he stands alone. He has not been a key person during those years of success. He has been the treasurer during most of that time. He did not take any of the decisions that have made this club big.

How many candidates will pass the cut of the signatures?
Since a month I'm saying that there will be four. I do not know exactly who they will be, but I have the feeling that there will be four.

You think there will be pacts?
It is very complicated. Once the groups have their own dynamics, it is difficult to change them. At Barça, there are no ideologies, so it's all about group's dynamics. That is positive because it allows the members to have more options. Also for the candidates, because it makes us compete and make better proposals.

Would you make a deal with Ferrer?
I think that is very complicated.

If a deal would be possible, would you be willing to give up the number one position?
No. In all modesty, I believe that our candidacy has the most power, the most experience, and ensures the model. We have helped to shape it. I myself helped to arrange the transition from Rijkaard to Guardiola. Luckily, the sport project we set up is still in place.

Are you the center project?
We are the balanced project, with the most knowledge. At one side, we have the bureaucratic officialism and on the other side, we have the constant opposition to the current model.

You're in the center and you're a team...
I am fortunate and I have the honour to wear the captain's armband. Any of the other three companions could wear it. They have decided that it would be me. But our style is that of a group. We are distancing ourselves from the superegos.

How would you define your team?
Very polyvalent and very Barca, because we go out there trying to win from the first minute, with an attractive project, and creative in attack, like the Barça of Pep. We will go forward and when we will need to defend ourselves against the attacks by other candidates, we will do that without stopping to think about how to recover the ball and go forward again. It will be the style of a team, it won't be presidential.

Are you ready for the attacks in a campaign that is expected to be dirty?
I'm not ready for a dirty campaign, I'm ready for fair play and positive ideas. Dirty games don't interest me. We will make very clear that there is a man who opposes the current model and another one who represents a continuism that I don't I believe in.

Aren't you worried about presenting a team project in a football world that is very presidential?
The model of a president-star, who lives in outer space so that nobody knows where he is, is very unrealistic. We have the current example and we have a candidate who is very much like it and who is acting as a star for almost five years. The position of president of Barça has a certain danger to it and I - as anyone else - could be affected by it, so that is why for the good government of the club things should be done as a team. And I have the best.

What will be your style as president?
Delegating a lot, giving everyone their own areas of government. And discrete, with a rather low profile, I do not like the big gestures. It is a feature of my personality, and combined with the best team, we can find a good balance.

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

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interview: ramiro martín-llanos