Joan Laporta Interview With Goal.com

This is an Exclusive Goal.com interview with Joan Laporta. The interview was conducted by Goal.com Founder and President Gianluigi Longinotti-Buitoni.

*Note that Gianluigi Longinotti-Buitoni’s dialogue is in Bold while Laporta’s is in Italic*

We are here in the Camp Nou stadium, the temple of one of the biggest teams in the history of football: FC Barcelona. The most outstanding characteristic of Barcelona is not just that this club achieved the greatest sport success of all time, after winning six titles in the same season with individual and collective performances that will pass into the annals of sport. What strikes the most is the way Barcelona has achieved these accomplishments.

First of all, Barcelona’s sporting success is based primarily on the development of champions from its own grass roots program: Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta… Secondly, in a time when most clubs are experiencing financial difficulties, Barcelona has become the second largest club in annual revenues – 365.9 million Euros doubling its sales in the last five years, an unparalleled success among the top clubs in the world.

Who is behind these successes? Often presidents of football clubs become the most important figures in determining the success of the team: they are the ones who choose the coach, who agree the purchase of players, who oversee the creation of a business model and determine the social responsibilities of the club. The president who most exemplifies this role is Joan Laporta, president of FC Barcelona.

Mr President, under your leadership Barcelona has achieved unprecedented success. What do you think was the best decision you’ve made?

Well, our best decision, for we are a board of administration that I have the privilege of presiding, and we take the decisions collectively and whenever a sports decision is taken, it is supported by the technical secretary and people who give us good advice… but the best decision we have made over the years in my opinion was the decision to appoint Txiki Beguiristain as technical secretary; he is a man who has consistently presented a very competitive sport proposal. Also a great decision was to appoint Frank Rijkaard as coach; a good decision was also to appoint Josep Guardiola, this has been an extraordinary decision; a decision which was complicated because it did not have popular support nor the required complicity to make such decisions to be taken normally, but we demonstrated courage and a clear idea of what we wanted. Above all, the best sporting decision was to develop a “Cruyffist” philosophy of football. This means to be faithful to an idea of football born with Cruyff, and which has turned Barcelona into a club that aspires for excellence, a club that prefers to be the best than to be first – generally if you’re the best, you’re the first – but it’s this way of loving football, and this sports philosophy which has been the biggest decision.

When I speak about applying this sports philosophy, as a consequence, Txiki comes, Rijkaard comes, Guardiola comes… the key is this sport philosophy that we have decided to apply, this “Cruyffist” philosophy. From a non sporting point of view, the best decision was to refound Barca Foundation and to forge an alliance with UNICEF; this is the most important non-sporting decision that we have taken during these seven years of my term, which will reach an end now on June 30 when the term will be finished. For me, the best decisions have been these two: to be faithful to an idea of understanding the game, a “Cruyffist” philosophy and then the decision to reach a global alliance with UNICEF, which has provided us with the opportunity to help many needy children and which has also released an image of Barca with values, and this I think is very important.

And the worst decision?

Generally speaking, I like to talk about the good things. I’ll tell you that, for sure, we have made bad choices, and what I do value is the fact of having the will to correct the mistakes and look forward. And now, I’m trying to think up the worst decision, and I do not remember any! Do you know what happens? Sure we made mistakes, and I am the first in making them, but I try to forget the mistakes. I think we should learn from the mistakes but not remember them. You must learn from the mistakes, correct them and look ahead. Wrong decisions? I think in general, everything we have done has had a meaning and I have the peace of mind to know that everything we have done has been done with a positive will, and those decisions that did not turn out well, have been used to learn from so I think they have not been bad either.

What are the three main features that, in your opinion, have helped to achieve such extraordinary success?

I sort of answered this before. The first one is to be faithful to an idea of understanding football, which is this “Cruyffist” philosophy: it is a way of trying to dominate the match from the start, of controlling the ball, playing in two passes, attacking, trying to score more goals that our rivals, being generous with the show. That seeks to play well and be the best. This I think is very important; this is key. As such, certain decisions have been taken, such as enhancing La Masia. I would say that being true to this idea of football includes enhancing La Masia. La Masia is the term we use for the grassroots programs of Barca; We have invested heavily there, we worked hard, we put a lot of effort into it, and also intelligence, ability, skills… and the consequence is that nowadays, in the first team, we have 50 percent of players who have been born as players in our club, who have grown and have been developed as players and have been formed as persons and have understood the representativeness of the club, its symbolism, the pride of being from Barca. This is transmitted into the first team and nowadays it makes us have a football identity of our own, a style based on this way of understanding the game we call “Cruyffism”, which has also been improved by Frank Rijkaard when he was head coach of the team, and which has been and is being directed masterfully by Pep Guardiola, because both of them have in their heads this way of understanding football.

Especially in the case of Pep, he has the knowledge of the club, the knowledge of La Masia, what it is like to be from Barca. Then, players like Messi, and Iniesta, Xavi, and Puyol, as Pique, as Busquets, as Bojan, like Pedro, like Victor Valdes… are players who carry the club in their veins, they know the club by heart, they have suffered a lot, they have worked a lot in Barca in order to be able to be where they are now. This is really beautiful, and it is one of the keys. Being more than a club is important too; being “more than a club” is not a slogan, it is an early statement, it is an expression of our sporting identity, the expression of our cultural identity, our Catalan identity, the expression of our international focus – as Barca is a global club. It is an expression of our vocation of solidarity which is being developed through the Foundation. So being more than a club, our “Cruyffist” philosophy of understanding football and La Masia are the keys to our success.

Visca el Barca!