FC Barcelona’s board allegedly paid a “reputation management company” called I3 Ventures to attack their “enemies,” which included the club’s current players and other notables according to Cadena SER. Following closely on the heels of this scandalous leak, #BarçaGate, as some are wont to call the Barcelona mess now, is fast picking up intensity as the dirty lowdown reportedly linked to Josep Maria Bartomeu and his board is daily being unearthed now with a scary intensity.
I3 Ventures reportedly managed six Facebook pages with two in particular – Alter Sports and Justicia y Diálogo en el Deporte – being used most often to carry out the scurrilous, incendiary attacks on Messi, Piqué, Xavi, Pep Guardiola & others .
Alter Sports with its contents in English carries an informal style based on internet culture, memes, and jokes. Meanwhile, Justicia y Diálogo en el Deporte isin Spanish with a more sober tone. Both online social media vehicles had their pet targets with a noticeable inclination towards attacking a particular group of people and with a clear bent towards defending key members of the current board, particularly club president Bartomeu.
Below are examples of those controversial derogatory posts that the Barcelona Board reportedly paid I3 Ventures to orchestrate in their slur campaign, which subsequently ignited and further fanned the flames of the continuing controversy surrounding #BarçaGate.
Let’s start with this post from Alter Sports directed against Xavi Hernandes for turning down the offer to be head coach of Barcelona:
“The face you make when the Barça train leaves you behind for being a smart ass. In life, you need to know when to take your chances on the fly and not to wait for when it’s convenient and for them to serve it to you with a beer in your hand.”
Here’s another one from Alter Sports with this one ridiculing Messi’s wife, Antonella Rocuzzo, calling a “wild beast”:
“What a wild beast Messi has at home. They mess with her son on social media and Antonella comes out like a lioness to defend.”
Messi was the victim of a more direct attack from Sport Leaks, another social media page managed by I3 Ventures, which seemed to carry the agenda of focusing on clandestine deals conducted in the football world.
There’s one in particular alleging that Messi was “destabilizing the board” by opting to be ‘silent’ and refusing to sign his contract renewal with Barcelona, supposedly in exchange for substantial financial remuneration from Spanish businessman Jaume Roures to fund a theme park project of the star footballer’s in China.
Rouras himself was apparently portrayed as such an insidious enemy that an entire page was dedicated to him: “Jaume un Film de Terror.”
Oddly, despite having left the club for a considerable number of years as one of their most successful managers with his stellar record of achievements there, Pep Guardiola appeared to be one of their popular targets. Alter Sports frequent posts directed at him were laced with invectives. Justicia y Diálogo also held him in disregard and disdain in their posts about him.
Gerard Piqué was also not to be spared:
“(Traditional Spanish song) and long live Spain… in Piqué’s magic box, there is an air that’s very Spanish. The footballer has tossed aside his political vision in search of success for his competition. Do you think he’s doing the right thing?”
Justicia has an obvious focus on personalities like Víctor Font, Joan Laporta, and Agustí Benedito who are the likely candidates running for the coveted post of president to replace incumbent Josep Maria Bartomeu. It’s clear from the vindictive tone and language of the posts that these three individuals are not held in high esteem by the perpetrators lurking behind behind the posts, frequently accusing them, and also local media and organizations, of being Catalan separatists who’s main intention is to compel Barcelona to accede to “illogical” demands from Catalan nationalists. Conversely, in these settings, club president Bartomeu is always conveniently portrayed as the sole clarion voice of reason refusing to bow to demands to “over politicize” the club. Very coincidental and convenient for Bartomeu, to say the least.
The vocal support, and unbridled defense, of Bartomeu from these pages tend to raise quite a few eyebrows and cause suspicion, especially when those making these posts seem to be intent on reminding the online target audiences that Bartomeu champions women’s rights and even extols his virtues for his ability to live life with humor! All this within the context of football and football politics?
It’s a most unlikely coincidence that Justicia openly publishes pro-Bartomeu content like the one below as this tends to give rise naturally to open conjecture linking him to being one of the main perpetrators behind the malicious online postings.
“Bartomeu defended the path to full equality yesterday, on International Women’s Day. Guardiola continues to use a ribbon in favor of political prisoners. Is football more than a sport?”
Or that Bartomeu “knows how to take a joke better than other athletes or football directors.” And then congratulate him for “knowing how to live life with humor”.
All this should truly be most insufferable for fans and supporters of the once great Barcelona FC to digest.
Bartomeu does not deny paying I3 Ventures at all.
Of course, it stands to reason that he and his club cronies at Barcelona would vehemently deny they ever paid for the online company to create any malicious content targeting the earlier mentioned individuals. In the hope of exonerating themselves, the club says that as soon as they found out I3 Ventures was behind the inflammatory content in these pages, they severed ties with the company.
Well done, Bartomeu! We were all born only yesterday.