If there is one thing that has been a hallmark of Futbol Club Barcelona these last few years, it is the presidency's disdain for the club's members, supporters and the multitude of Barça fans around the planet. Only from a position of the most utter contempt - coupled with the panic that must arise when you know you have no plausible explanation - can it be understood that more than 24 hours after Leo Messi announced his desire to leave the club where he has played all his life, Josep Maria Bartomeu was still keeping quiet.
I cannot imagine myself in a similar situation in the face of a bombshell announcement that has shaken the media all around the world and inflicted enormous reputational damage on the club's brand. Today, Barça is a depreciated club which, were it listed on the stock exchange, would have witnessed the collapse of its share price, making it more difficult for those responsible to continue. Here, however, the board hides behind the coronavirus pandemic and a stadium closed to fans to avoid doing something as simple, though as difficult, as showing their faces.
Twenty-four hours after the news we know at least three things: that Bartomeu is still in the chair without there being any real evidence of his resignation on the immediate horizon; that Messi is leaving because of an irreversible loss of confidence in the president, because he feels betrayed; and that the club's assembly of delegates in October is already presenting itself as the battle royale to attempt to force the departure of the board by rejecting the accounts that will be presented. The use of the assembly is considered faster than a no-confidence motion - a path that, right now, could work, but which, if it prospered, would then require time intervals to be respected so that the elections scheduled for March would only be brought forward by a few weeks.
A survey carried out by this newspaper as soon as it became known that the player had informed the club of his intention to leave is revealing: almost 90% of those who answered consider that Messi's departure is Bartomeu's fault. The player himself, through one of his close circle, told the Argentinian newspaper La Nación how painful his decision was: "It hurts me in my soul, but it's over. The cycle has been completed." He arrived at Barça's Masia at the age of 13, he has given the club a previously-unthinkable global dimension, he didn't want to leave and we've lost him. What else does it take for a resignation?