Thursday, June 10, 2010

Live Coverage: Third presidential debate

Barcelona presidential candidates Agustí Benedito, Jaume Ferrer, Marc Ingla and Sandro Rosell held the third presidential debate on Catalan television channel 8tv.

Contract renewal Xavi

Rosell: "It's a good thing if the technical staff has approved it. He will most probably become the player with the most games at the club.

Benedito: "I'm happy."

Ingla: "Good news. Xavi has the Barça DNA, he could become a coach at the club later.

Ferrer: "He deserves to finish his career at Barça."

Role of the president

Ingla: "The president shouldn't intervene. The president shouldn't get involved in the sports area. A president shouldn't propose players to the coach and put pressure on them."

Rosell: "Everyone has his task but the president has to mark the limits."

Ferrer: "It depends on the moment. If Guardiola asks for Chygrynskiy after winning the treble, it's difficult not to follow him. But the president shouldn't think he knows more than the coach. He should stay away from the technical decisions and not want to throw out for example Rijkaard after some games, or dismiss Tito Vilanova [goes for Rosell]."

Benedito: "The president should only put economic limits."

Ferrer: "In February 2005, Rosell wanted to throw out Rijkaard and replace him by Gratacós, and later Scolari."

Ingla: "I confirm this."

Rosell: "That's not tru, I said we should turn things around or else the league could slip away. And first we indeed thought about Gratacos, because we didn't have money for another coach."

Benedito: "I was at that time part of the sports commission, following the handball section. I didn't have power to decide. And Rosell was indeed interventionist. Ingla also, in the marketing department."

Ingla: "I remember perfectly that Rosell wanted to change the coach just before winning the first league. As far as the marketing department is concerned, we were working hard to change things but I always worked with the permission of the board."

Ferrer: "Rosell has businesses in the world of football and that makes him wanting to intervene."

Rosell: "I will sell my business if I'm elected and I never represented players, I'm mostly working for multinationals. The times are also different, now the model is clear."

Ferrer: "Rosell left in 2005, because he didn't like the model we were building. Like Ingla in 2008, who also wanted Mourinho."

Rosell: "I left because we weren't executing the election program."

Ingla: "In November, we already wanted Guardiola. In January, Mourinho offered himself, so we went to see him but upon return I told the president we couldn't sign him. I have witnesses of that meeting, like former director Murtra."

Ingla: "Rosell brought lists with his favourite players to the board, like Maniche, Costinha and others, and the sports director had to choose."

Rosell: "We should finish the youth centre."

Ferrer: "We will finish it this year."

Rosell: "We want another youth academy, also for the other sections."

Ferrer: "We already have that."

Benedito: "We need more youth academy and private jets."

Ferrer: "Benedito has never been in the board so he can't know all that. Most private jets are put at our disposal by the FIFA and others to go and get the prizes of the players."

Successor Guardiola? Do we want to keep the style?

Ingla: "We should keep the style we put in place in 2003. We should have a long-term view."

Ferrer: "We'll see what happens with Guardiola, we'll start with 2-3 more years and then we'll see if he wants to stay."

Rosell: "We will try to convince Guardiola to stay for the six years. We should keep the style."

Youth academy

Ingla and Ferrer: "We want a more global youth academy."

Rosell and Benedito: "We should only have the academy in Barcelona."

Youth stand

Rosell: "We want it because we want more animation in the stadium."

Ingla: "The Catalans are like this, over the last years the atmosphere has already gotten better. A united youth stands is a chance for the hooligans to get back in."

Benedito: "Rosell is playing with fire, although I agree we need more animation. But we should analyze the issue very carefully."

Ferrer: "At the game against Inter for example, we had the best animation in years."

Social project

Ingla: "The member will have the power to decide in several area, like for exmple the honorary members. We want to stay solidary with the world around, but also with the members, who we want to help in difficult moments. We want to be closer than ever to the member."

Rosell: "We want to change the hours of the games in 2012 and play in the afternoon, so the families and children can come to the stadoum."

Benedito: "The fact that we have members is something unique in the world and we should finally give him the power he should have."

Ferrer: "We have listened to the members and we will implement what they asked us. We should renew the stadium so it's more user-friendly. We should offer cheaper packages for away games. We wants to be more solidary than ever."

Benedito: "We want to ask the members the chance to vote on proposals, for example every two months."

Ingla: "Barcelona is a feeling, we want to give everyone the chance to become a member, although we don't want to promote it."

Rosell, Ferrer and Benedito: "We should regulate the entrance of new members."

5 comments:

  1. debate is over, thanks for following. friday final debate at 21:50 local time!

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  2. I ahte Rosell more and more with every new idea he has... It's not because of families he wants to play in the afternoon- it's because of Asian market... and let me tell you one thing- the game played in daylight doesn't have 50% of the atmosphere the one being played in the evening has... Hooligans, playing times like in Premiership, the membership issue... this man is the worst thing that can happen to Barcelona!

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  3. spain don't play in the afternoon as it will be bloody hot then surely? keep the hooligans out.

    hey pep, wanted to say thanks for keeping us so well informed of these elections.

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  4. Oliver has announced that the club renegotiated the contract with Mediapro for the next four seasons. (details after the last board meeting)
    Hopefully Rosell won't be able to change the hours of the games anytime soon if he's elected.

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