Laporta, Joan

Joan Laporta has a degree in law from the University of Barcelona and is a member of the Barcelona Bar Association. In addition, Laporta is a founding partner and owner of the law firm “ Laporta & Arbós ” and a professor of law at the Faculty of Technical Architects at the University of Barcelona. He also acted as a personal adviser to the Japanese consul in Barcelona. He is married to Constance Echevarria (the daughter of businessman John Echevarria , former president of Nissan Ibérica ) and has three sons.

In 1998, Laporta becomes the head of the Elefant blau ( Blue Elephant ) movement, which strengthens the movement against Barcelona President Luis Josep Núñez . After losing the election for the presidency of Barcelona in 2000 , Laporta began to create a working group with which he ran for the election against President Joan Gasparta. At the same time, Laporta decided to form his own candidature that would unite young entrepreneurs. After the resignation of President Gaspar in February 2003 , interim President Enric Reina held elections on June 15, 2003 , where the following results were obtained: Laporte - 52.6% of the vote, Louis Bassat - 31.8%, Jordi Maho - 4.8% . Thus, Laporta became the fourth young president in the history of the football club Barcelona at the age of 39.

The program of the team of Laporta intended to conduct the processes of democratization and catalanization of the club, while at the same time acting in austerity and transparency in terms of communication. In addition, a thorough financial audit was announced, the real economic situation of the club was made public, complaints about economic crimes committed by the previous club management were received. As for the sport, it was promised to buy major football stars (in particular, David Beckham ). Unlike other candidates (whose age was about 60 years old), Laporta showed himself masters of public speaking, which were conducted in brilliant English or Catalan and with the involvement of the media, for which he was called in the press "the boy from the powerpoint generation".

2003/2004 season

As president, Laporto, immediately engaged in finding a new candidate for the coach. But Guus Hiddink , who had previously been considered as a candidate, rejected the offer of “Barcelona”, as he was offered a contract less than he had in PSV . As a result, the choice fell on the Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard , despite the fact that he had minimal experience as a club coach. As for the players, here Laporta lowered the purchase of football players to 12 and invested in this process € 44.4 million: Ronaldinho (€ 27 million), Quaresma (€ 6 million), Rafael Marquez (€ 5 million), Luis Garcia (€ 4 million), etc.

In the first season under the leadership of Laporta, Barcelona won the Catalonia Cup and finished second in the Spanish Championship . Also during the season, the number of club members (socios) increased by 25,000, reaching 130,000 at the end of 2004 . From a social point of view, one of the first steps was the eradication of violence, especially in the sector of the fan group “Boixos Nois”, which prompted a series of insults and threats from these fans. Laporta also received a portion of criticism for an increase, on average, by 40%, in entrance ticket prices.

2004/2005 season

Before the start of the second season, the management team, led by Laporta and Rossel , completes the purge of 14 people: ( Sonny Andersson , Phillip Koku , Edgar Davids , Patrick Kluivert , Luis Enrique , Luis Garcia , Oscar Lopez, Mark Overmars , Ricardo Quaresma , Michael Reiziger , Ryushtu Rechber , Sergio Santamaría , Javier Saviola , Sergio Garcia and invests € 67.5 million in the acquisition of 9 players ( Samuel Eto'o , Deco , Edmilson , Ludovic Julie , Juliano Belletti , Silvinho , Henrik Larsson , Maxi Lopes and Demetriot Demetriot , Maxillon Belletti , Silvinho , Henrik Larsson , Maxi Lopez and Demetriot Demetriot , Maxillon Belletti , Silvinho , Henrik Larsson , Maxi Lopez and Demetriot Demetriot , Deuce Belletti , Silvinho , Henrik Larsson , Maxi Lopez and Demetriot Demetrison , Jules , Juliano Belletti , Silvinho , Henrik Larsson , Maxi Lopez and Demetriot Demetrison ). The football season was very successful, the club won the Cup of Catalonia, the championship and the Super Cup of Spain , for which the club received high marks from most media. However, in the European Cup, “Barcelona” failed, leaving the Champions League at the stage of 1/8 finals, losing to English “ Chelsea ”.

The social prestige of Laporta deteriorated on July 9 with the incident at the airport Barcelona - El Prat : metal detectors all the time showed the presence of metal products, so Laporte simply stripped to his underpants, which led to the airport staff shock ^[2] .

2005/2006 season

In the 2005/2006 season, Barcelona won the second title of champion of Spain, and also won a victory in the Champions League , which became the second in the history of the club. In the summer of 2006, Joan Laporta was re-elected for a second presidential term, as he was the only one who collected the 1,804 signatures necessary for participation in the elections.

2006/2007 season

The 2006/2007 season began with euphoria, manifested in the unique opportunity to win 7 titles per season: the Champions League, the national championship, the Spanish Cup, the Spanish Super Cup, the European Super Cup , the Club World Cup and the Catalonia Cup. The beginning of the season really turned out to be successful: winning the Spanish Super Cup against Espanyol , but then a deafening defeat at the European Super Cup against Sevilla and losing the final match for the Internacional World Club trophy from Porto Alegre . Finally, the situation worsened after losing the Getafe to the Spanish Cup (winning the first match 5-2 and losing 4-0 in the second) and failing to win the national title (Barcelona took 2nd place, gaining the same number of points with Real Madrid )

2007/2008 season

In the 2007/2008 season, the club was strengthened by Thierry Henry , Eric Abidal , Yaya Toure and Gabriel Milito . The key episode of this season was the home defeat of Real Madrid (0-1), after which many fans demanded his resignation. The situation was aggravated by the fact that Barcelona did not win a single title this season. The reaction from the president was not long in coming, and at the end of the season, Frank Rijkard left the club. Place coach took Pep Guardiola .

• Article about Joan Laporte on BarsaMania
• Joan Laporte on the official website of Barcelona