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Throughout Europe football is changing. The expanded Champions League has had a marked effect on national leagues and competitions and has provoked serious concerns among many supporters. Many fans across Europe feel that the destiny of their clubs is guided more and more by the financial rewards available to them via participation in lucrative competitions. Massive increases in revenue from television coverage has reduced the reliance of many football clubs on their supporters for the major part of their income, and as a consequence many supporters feel alienated from their clubs. L'Elefant Blau is a non-profit association of members and supporters of FC Barcelona working to ensure that the historical democracy of the club is maintained along with the club's traditions of ownership by the local community and strong identification with that community.1
FC Barcelona is a prime example of a club in transition caused by the changes mentioned above. The club's traditions of ownership by its members are increasingly under threat from those seeking to exploit global economic forces. Television revenue is increasingly important to the club's finances. Players' wages have increased at an incredible rate throughout the 1990s and the subscriptions of club members have become significantly less important to the club during that time. Sponsorship of the club shirt was even considered for the first time in the club's 100-year history in 1999. L'Elefant Blau recognises the benefits brought by the increased money in the game but campaigns to ensure that, at the same time, the members' democratic rights are upheld. Through such campaigns, our organisation has become a centre of control and opposition to the management of FC Barcelona under the presidency of Josep Lluis Núñez.
Núñez has held on to the presidency of FC Barcelona for 21 years and during this time has tried to radically alter the constitution of the club. At the time of writing, the club is still a non-profit association, but this traditional constitution is in danger. We remain a non-profit association because of the loyalty of our members and the citizens of Catalonia. Núñez has tried to manipulate and diminish the role of the members in the management of the club. His application to convert the club to a plc was done in a manipulative way and without the consent of a majority of the members. But he has managed to hold on to his position for so long because he has sought support from powerful interests. L'Elefant Blau campaigns for the open, democratic management of the club on behalf of those members that Núñez tries to ignore and manipulate. The members do not elect delegates at the club's general meeting. This is another aspect of the constitution that we would like to reform. L'Elefant Blau believes FC Barcelona needs more democratic rights otherwise the club will be ruled by people and directors who will only ever regard the club as a profit-making business.
The club has 100,000 members. On 27 July 1997 there were elections for the presidency. Núñez won by 25,000 votes against 5,000 votes for the other candidate. Yet when he tried to convert the club to a plc L'Elefant Blau organised a vote of censure; only seven months after the presidential election he gained the same level of support, 25,000 members voting for him, but this time 15,000 members voted for the L'Elefant Blau censure. We believe this demonstrates significant opposition to the president when the active participation of the members of the club in elections is encouraged. Núñez had no more support to rally, yet, once mobilised, significant opposition to him emerged.
Núñez controls the membership list, and invokes secrecy laws and privacy laws in Catalonia to prevent other members of the club gaining access to the list. He spends each of his terms of office currying favour with certain influential members. The whole of the membership cannot go along to the council which elects directors and, as with any elections, there is always a limit on the number of people who actually bother to vote. L'Elefant Blau members are ordinary people who are members of the club, yet are not allowed access to the membership list, and so are at an obvious disadvantage when campaigning against a president with the wealth and influence of Mr Núñez. To move a censure vote you must have 6,000 signatures. In order to obtain enough members' signatures we had to sit at a table on Las Ramblas, Barcelona's main thoroughfare, for a week and sign people up to petition the club. L'Elefant Blau believes there is no doubt of the opposition to Núñez, but it can be difficult to mobilise support as people think that there is no point in a campaign against him. That's why L'Elefant Blau is proud to be friends with supporters' groups all over Europe, who, as the Manchester United supporters have shown, can organise to oppose plans they believe to be against the best interests of their clubs.
FC Barcelona is in the hands of a kind of mafia, who are only interested in the club as a commodity. Football and FC Barcelona are a way of life for many Catalans. It is this tribal spirit that is so important to football. Without it, football means nothing. Businesspeople like Rupert Murdoch will kill football if they continue to direct its development. Football needs to maintain its local and tribal links if it is to survive. At the moment, however, our club is financing the Netherlands national team and their European Championship ambitions.
We believe that FC Barcelona should be careful about having so many foreign players in the club. Of course, the club has always had players from all over Europe, but it is possible that the fans will not identify with the club any more if the team lacks local players. L'Elefant Blau is not xenophobic, but there are problems here. It is important for any football club to develop home-grown talent for its long-term future - for the benefit of the club and the local community. There are also mysterious business deals around the sale and transfer of foreign players; we have evidence that the club paid more for one player than they publicly declared. It can be difficult to prove financial wrongdoings when there are offshore companies involved, but we see that there is a lot of money flowing out of the club in a not-always-transparent way. This is damaging to the future of the club, and this again is a general point, as Gordon Taylor argues elsewhere in this book.
The experiences of L'Elefant Blau have led us to believe that the creation of an independent, European-wide regulator of professional football is vital to safeguard clubs from irresponsible officials. The traditions of the game are at serious risk of erosion. Such a regulator should establish European-wide rules that apply to all football clubs. It should set standards of financial propriety and act as a watchdog over television deals, sponsorship and merchandising. The regulator should ensure that any club board of directors which fails to meet these standards receives substantial sanctions. It should also work to ensure the rights of democratic members at clubs where such a constitution exists.
L'Elefant Blau believes that a European independent regulator could be an important force in protecting football from predatory business interests. The regulator should not be anti-business, but should seek to accommodate the business side of football with the game's social, cultural and sporting traditions. Thus rules should be drawn up that prevent clubs from embarking on risky financial strategies that jeopardise an important community asset.
L'Elefant Blau will be pleased to develop links with sister supporter associations in other European countries where business interests have threatened the special nature of their clubs. There is a growing feeling among fans across Europe that collective action needs to be taken to protect the game we love. Thus, L'Elefant Blau would propose the creation of a European Association of Football Supporters that would act as a lobby group to defend the interests of supporters and their clubs and communities. This lobby would seek to include as many supporter groups across Europe as possible, and would establish a central secretariat and headquarters, with branches in every country. L'Elefant Blau believes that one of the first campaigns of such an organisation should be to prepare a manifesto addressed to the European Commission proposing the above-mentioned independent European-wide regulator of professional football.
Fans across Europe have drawn a line in the sand. The game belongs to all of us, and with collective action we can still reclaim the people's game.
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