The Quote: Lluis Bassat

"In 2003, I had to sell an apartment I had bought for my son, to pay the debts of the campaign, because some other people of my candidacy didn't want to pay their part of the costs."


Lluís Bassat,
Barcelona presidential candidate in 2000 and 2003

read more election quotes here

Lillo looking back at 2003 election campaign

In an interview with Catalan newspaper El Periódico, Almería manager Juan Manuel Lillo talked about the elections campaign of 2003 when he was, together with current Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola, part of the candidacy of Lluís Bassat:

"Pep called me and invited me to work with him. I never ask him what something is about. I don't even think about it. I go wherever needed. And when he proposed me to become the coach of Barça, what was there to think about! I also knew Lluís, so everything was very simple.

It is true that we focused all our attention on what we would do when we would win the elections, so that we didn't do anything to actually win. We were only thinking about and for Barça. That's Pep, more culé than the flag pole at the Camp Nou.

We didn't mention a single name, not regarding transfers, or coaches, or anything. We wanted that if people voted for us, it would be because of an idea, a project. We did not want the elections to be a catwalk of transfers. We maintained that policy, knowing it could play against us.

In the end, you think that if that was what the member decided, it just was not the right time for us to enter the club. Besides, all the people that were part of the candidacy - Lluís, Roca, Alemany, Pep - had very busy lives so that that the next day they just went on with what they were doing. Which is the proof of the integrity of all of them."

Read more:
Lillo would have been coach under Bassat
Could Guardiola be a future president?
Bassat: "Laporta invented Beckham transfer"

Bassat hoping for non-Laporta linked candidate

Former presidential candidate Lluís Bassat, who was the runner-up in the 2000 and the 2003 elections, has said last month at an event organized by Spanish sports weekly paper Don Balón that he hopes a candidate that has not been linked with the board of current Barcelona president Joan Laporta will take part in the elections:

"With the current pre-candidates, there won't be any renewal. Rosell, Godall, Ferrer and Soriano all come from the same project and if only those will run, they will end up talking about why one left and the other stayed. The debates would be little interesting and everything would be reduced to a very limited group."

Read more:
Bassat: "Laporta invented Beckham transfer"
Catalan journalist rejects offer to run for president
Bassat rejects offers to take part in elections

Catalan journalist rejects offer to run for president

Catalan sports weekly paper Gol claims, confirming an earlier report by Catalan radio station Catalunya Ràdio, that Catalan journalist Xavier Bosch (picture) has rejected an offer to head a candidacy in the elections for president of FC Barcelona later this year.

A group of people that were linked to the presidential candidacy of Catalan business man Lluís Bassat in 2003 would be trying to set up a project. The group, that would have the financial resources needed and only want to come out at the very last moment, had offered Bosch to lead the candidacy.

Xavier Bosch is a 42-year old journalist who currently hosts a talkshow on Catalan television channel TV3 and also acts as football pundit for Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo and Catalan radio station RAC 1. The journalist, who has also been linked to presidential candidate Sandro Rosell, reportedly refused the offer because of family reasons.

The above-mentioned group would meanwhile also have been talking with former Barcelona player and manager Carles Rexach and the group of Barcelona club members that had offered him earlier to run for president (read more here). The two groups would now want to join forces to present to the voters an alternative project.

Read more:
Respected journalist to run for president?
Bassat rejects offers to take part in elections
Minguella and Medina behind Rexach candidacy

What will Evarist Murtra do?

After Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola dedicated his team's victory in the World Cup for Clubs to former Barcelona director Evarist Murtra, there has been some speculation in the Catalan press about the role of Murtra in the upcoming elections.

At the press confernce after the game against Estudiantes on 19 December last year, Guardiola said: "I want to dedicate this victory to Evarist Murtra, I'm sure he's very happy. He was a person who with his insistence made the board think about me when they were looking for a coach for the second team and he has taught me great values. He deserves this."

Evarist Murtra (picture) is a 60-year old Catalan textile entrepreneur who has been active in the entourage of the club for more than two decades. After having co-founded a Barcelona opposition group, Murtra supported presidential candidate Sixte Cambra in the 1989 elections.

In February 1993, he joined the board of Josep Lluís Núñez. Three years later, Murtra resigned from his post as vice-president, officially because of professional reasons that left him with too little time but Murtra admitted later that internal board problems regarding the bank guarantee presidential candidates have to put down caused his exit.

In the 1997 elections, Murtra was a possible candidate but in the end he didn't take part after having failed to find a deal with Núñez challenger Angel Fernández and returned a blank ballot paper. In 2000 and 2003, Murtra supported presidential candidate Lluís Bassat who was twice the runner-up.

In November 2005, Murtra became a member of the board of Joan Laporta (read more here). He is believed to have been one of the main supporters of wearing the Unicef logo on the team's shirt and of the appointment of Guardiola as coach of, first, the second team and, later, the first team. In July 2008, Evarist Murtra left the board after the vote of no confidence (read more here).

this was the first part of this post. read the second part here.

Read more:
Bassat rejects offers to take part in elections
The Board, 6-7 Years Later (2) : The movements
Former candidate Angel Fernandez will not run

Bassat rejects offers to take part in elections

Speaking at an event organized by Spanish sports weekly paper Don Balón, Catalan business man Lluís Bassat has said that he will not take part in this year's elections for president of FC Barcelona:

"I have received offers to join several candidacies, but I have rejected all of them. But when the time of voting will have arrived and I will know who I will vote for, I will make my choice public."

Advertising agent Lluís Bassat (68) was the runner-up in the presidential elections of 2000 and 2003, being defeated by first Joan Gaspart (55% vs 43%) and then Joan Laporta (53% vs 32%).

Read more:
Bassat will not run a third time
Media mogul rejects election involvement
Bassat: "Laporta invented Beckham transfer"

Lillo would have been coach under Bassat

Speaking to Spanish newspaper Público, Almería manager Juan Manuel Lillo (picture, on the left) confirmed that he would have become the new manager of Barcelona if Lluís Bassat would have won the presidential elections in 2003.


You would have been the coach of Barça with Guardiola acting as sports director and Lluís Bassat as president. Your name was nevertheless kept hidden. Why was that?
For reasons of consistency, because the message that was trasmitted by both the candidate and Pep himself was based on not giving any names. We felt bad about others doing that, and we wanted people to accept the candidacy of Lluís Bassat because of the ideas and because of who was going to be strategically leading the club, not through putting out names. Over time they accused us of being naive, but it was an act of consistency.

Back then you were in Italy for a few weeks to prepare the candidacy with Pep. He was then already thinking about becoming a coach or not yet?
He then still didn't have the coaching degree and he was still a player, but his love for Barça and how he wanted his Barça to be was already clear to him. At that time he looked at it from a management point of view with a coach who could transmit his ideas. What we then discussed could come close to what Barça is now. Pep lived with intensity what Bassat proposed him, he liked it, but without thinking further than that.

Read more:
Bassat: "Laporta invented Beckham transfer"
Could Guardiola be a future president?
Bassat will not run a third time

The Pundit: Oriol Domenech on the first polls

« Rosell's lead over his rivals isn't bigger than the one the Dream Team of Lluís Bassat, with Guardiola, Alemany, Roca and Cugat, had in 2003 over the other candidates, among which a certain Joan Laporta who started with 0% in the polls. »

Oriol Domènech,
El Mundo Deportivo

check more pundit talk

Could Guardiola be a future president?

Speaking to Catalan radio station Catalunya Ràdio, Catalan businessman and twice runner-up in the elections for president of FC Barcelona Lluís Bassat (picture, on the right) has said that he is convinced that Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola will become president of the club one day:

"Guardiola was my candidate for sports director when I ran for president and one of my opponents - Laporta not to name him - accused me of not knowing anything about football. And we can discuss on that, but I sure know something about people. And now Guardiola has saved Laporta... Pep has every quality a professional should have. He's intelligent, honest, a hard worker, involved, loyal. So I'm very happy with the sucess he's having.

I sincerely think that Pep one day will be the president of Barça. He has the qualities needed for it. It could well be too early, he's still very young, he has many more things to do first. But I'm sure that his career will be: manager now, sports director one day, sports vice-president another day and then president. And he might become the best president in the history of Barça."

Read more:
Bassat will not run a third time
Bassat: "Laporta invented Beckham transfer"