MES QUE UN CLUB

Today, Sandro Rosell, the President of Barca, held a press conference and affirmed his loyalty to the current manager. That man Tito Villanova is pictured above, and Tito is currently on leave receiving cancer treatment. Since Tito's absence, the team has experienced a significant drop in form.

To put this drop in form in perspective, one must consider the team’s record prior to Tito’s medical leave to treat an aggressive form of recurrent salivary cancer and the team's record after Tito’s leave. In the first five months of the season, Barca had only lost two matches; they were on pace to set the record for all-time wins in a season in the Spanish League. In the past month, and more specifically in the past four games, Barca has lost three matches. They have been eliminated from the Spanish domestic cup competition, and they face elimination from Europe’s most coveted club trophy – the Champions’ League.

There have been many reasons for this drop in form, which I reviewed last time. Chief among them is the lack of a leader and the inadequacy of Villanova’s stand-in, his assistant coach Jordi Roura.

Many of us had hoped that the club would name an interim, more well-qualified manager until Tito returns. Indeed, there are a host of former Barca players or coaches who would have gladly and ably stepped into the breach. However, at today’s press conference Rosell made it clear that this was Villanova’s team and that no temporary or permanent replacement would be made unless it were clear that Tito could not return. Rosell went on to state that if Tito recovered but Barca lost every trophy, then this season would be considered a success. This was coming from the head of a club that has won 75% of the trophies they have been eligible to win in the past 4 years.

Any other club would have taken a different route and either replaced their manager or temporarily relieved him of his duties. Football is a business, and those clubs would have been within their rights to make such a move. However, for Barca, football is more than a business, and Barca has always been mes que un club – roughly translated from the Catalan into more than a club.

Barca represents not only the city of Barcelona and the province (or to some country) of Catalonia. Barca’s play on the field and the club’s conduct off the field represents fair play, decency, beauty, excellence, and above all justice. To usurp the authority of a man fighting cancer who led them to the greatest start in the club’s history would have been an insult to the man and to the club’s creed.

I cannot say I agree with this discussion as a Barca fan since the team has been utterly rudderless in the past month. I told myself that if the club were to regain its form under a new interim manager, surely Tito would be pleased. However, as an oncologist and as a human being, I stand by the President’s decision. Life is about more than winning and losing matches. Life is about leaving the world better than you found it. Life is about putting people ahead of profits and plaudits. Life is about leaving a legacy of which your children can be proud.

Mes que un club. What an understatement.