Former FC Barcelona player and manager and legendary Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff thinks that the La Liga giants have lost all their values under the current club President Josep Maria Bartomeu and his group. Cruyff himself has openly disclosed his support for Presidential election candidate Joan Laporta.
Laporta too had last week mentioned that the club has degraded on values ground. Bartomeu and his group were wrong on going into deals with Qatar. Also what happened regarding Neymar’s transfer was not good for Barcelona’s goodwill. He had further said that if he gets re-elected to the post he would bring back UNICEF or any charity name in front if the club’s jersey. Joan Laporta had served the club as President from 2001-2010.
Johan Cruyff spoke to the media and opined: “I am with Laporta, mostly because of the values. Barca has lost them and before anything else there should be principles, values. Money is secondary.
“Values like La Masia have been lost. Before it was a magical word, now that has disappeared.
“In addition, Barca has by a long way won the world prize for being caught up in judiciary issues and that cannot be. We must take this seriously.
“The drive by Barcelona to help the world with UNICEF was the most powerful drive in the world. With this initiative the club won acclaim in a social context. But now it isn’t there.”
The Dutch legend also shares the idea that infamous things like Neymar transfer issue did not go well with the club name. He added: “Neymar is always in the eye of the hurricane for non-sporting reasons. Seven trials, La Masia doesn’t exist, UNICEF doesn’t exist.
“I’m not saying what they have to do, I’m saying that in 2010 there were certain values that are not there now.”