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Both the Barça women’s captain, Alexia Putellas, and the team’s coach, Lluís Cortés, said on Wednesday that in the event that the measure proposed by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) is adopted, it will be terminated. in the current season of the Primera Iberdrola, Barça should be proclaimed champions

“There are eight games left, there are a lot of points and a lot of things can happen, but they are nine points ahead and we have been leaders practically the whole league. If there is to be a champion team, we have to be us,” Putellas told the program You will say of RAC1. Cortés, for his part, explained to TV3 that “the fairest thing, and also for the merit of the players, would be to recognize that they have been the best team and that they are the champions of this season”.

The idea of ​​the RFEF, which is opposed by most women’s First Division clubs, is to apply a fast and uniform mechanism in all the autonomous communities in non-professional competitions, in which there would be no relegation and in which the promotions would be decided in single-match qualifiers. “Third and Second B are different formats from our League. Analyzing the same solution for all leagues would not be the most convenient. We have European competitions and there are practically more and more FIFA dates,” defends the Barça captain.

“We know absolutely nothing. There is a lot of anxiety and uncertainty. You don’t know if we will play again, if we will not or when we will. There are also Champions. One day is one thing and the other another,” he added. azulgrana player.

The initiative Solidarity stories of sport arrives this year to its 16th edition with a special edition in which photography will occupy a central space, instead of the traditional texts, to pay tribute to the photographers Ferran Zueras, Carlos Pérez de Rozas, Miguel Moreno and Francesc Casals. The book, led by sports journalists with the idea of ​​raising money for charity, will go on sale this May in stores in El Corte Inglés.

This year, all proceeds go to the Hospital Clown Pallapupes Association. For this reason Quique Setién, who stars in the cover and writes the prologue, appears in the image on the first page wearing a red clown nose, in an image of Jordi Cotrina similar to that of Guardiola a few years ago, when he was the godfather from the book the year Clowns Without Borders helped. The foreword by the Barça manager was published just the day he turned 100 days as a Barça coach.

Leave a better future

“I put myself in front of the computer for several days to try to write something appropriate for this prologue, but my head only gave thinking about the alignment of Mallorca and also against Naples. Football was everything until the The news about the coronavirus pandemic ended with doubts and the reality kept us in a bit of distress at home.

And now what will happen? In just two days we have all been forced to change lives dramatically without knowing exactly how long we will be. Isolated between the four walls, yes, with the internet and Netflix mitigating the hours spent, one wonders for the tens of thousands of people who, without these privileges, are going through this and worse things every day around the world, and that for how many of the nearest will be his last days.

I think there has been no better time in my life to reflect deeply than this. We know that we only worry if we feel the pain in our own flesh or suffer it close, for example. Everything else lasts very little.

Humanity has been advancing at a breakneck pace, more progress has been made in the last 100 years than in all previous years since we became standing. Life expectancy is increasing and so are fewer people who are hungry because of this progress and the solidarity of people who dedicate their lives to doing better than others. But 102 years ago, the Spanish flu killed 50 million people and many millions more die each year from illnesses that have not been eradicated and new ones that appear, such as this one.

This wonderful invitation to be part of this solidary solidarity project comes at the right moment, first because it has shaken my consciousness from the moment I started reading all the prologues that preceded me and also because it reminds us of who we are. really and how soon we will be around.

There are still many points of conflict in the world where survival is a utopia in the hands of fate. When we return to the street with our daily tasks, I trust that we have learned something. We will not be able to change the world individually, but we can each commit ourselves to change what is closer to us with small gestures that help improve the lives of those around us.

In football, which took up most of my life and gave me everything I have and everything I am, I will always be grateful. I am aware of the concessions granted by my life and the protection offered by those around me, which millions of people cannot and cannot access. From now on I assume the responsibility of my public office as a speaker to avoid the crunch and the tensions that surround us every day and to be able to be a little happier.

And for this we need that there is not a single sad clown. These kids who will take our place will remember the rest of their lives each and every smile. And there is no better reason or encouragement than a child’s smile to leave a better future. “

It was a goal before returning to the pitch. It is not yet clear when we will go out and Barça will win the match of social commitment in this strange world of coronavirus in which we live. This initiative is a great media action for the entity. I am sure this is the best campaign that the Barça brand can create these days. The other day, as always, as concisely and brilliantly as I was, one of the best brand builders I know, Toni Segarra (great parakeet, by the way), said, “We are in times when brands have to and not say. ” My translation: Communicating is acting. This is the best way. This is what Americans call thinking outside the box ( think outside the box) and in the field of marketing is of great value. Going to the market to make a temporary donation of your best-selling asset is as obvious and venerable as possible, but doing so in a time of economic crisis like the one in which professional sports are living is an act of sublime strategic greatness. That sets you apart from most other competitors, absolutely all.

Remember when we brought Unicef ​​to our shirt? It was a pride for all Barça players. Well, we have once again sought to be in that dimension of a club that wants to be more than just a club and it does things to be. Doing so at a time when professional sport is more commercialized than ever before and this pandemic of diabolical consequences has set in check, in less than a month and a half, the sport business is brave and bold. and smart. Carrying it out in a year with financial and financial risk of having a profit and loss account broadens the value of the share. The final value obtained will not be a figure of the dimension that was projected for the potential sale of naming rights of the new stadium. It will surely be a small amount, because neither the present stage has that value nor the market is for large numbers of investment in scenarios of potential devaluation of the marketing budgets of the companies. The big change is that instead of going on sale with this new intangible value of the stadium, you generate enough media noise to come and buy you. Because? Because all of a sudden the potential buyer of this asset is not just acquiring the rights to name a football stadium, but it is being linked to a solidarity activity of a humanitarian nature. This is what Americans call one win-win (everyone wins). Brands will be social and they will need to have an influence and involvement in the environment, society, culture, politics and the planet. If not, they will not be.

Barça have decided that they want to rebuild their brand in capital letters. This is not going to get videos I like you on social networks. This is thinking big. Putting the world ahead of sport, but understanding that sport has the capacity to move the world, and even more when it comes back from this crisis. For the few who think that conventional marketing could pay the salary of Lautaro or Neymar, I’m sorry to tell you that they are wrong. First because with another approach this sponsorship would not be sold. But above all we will be more than a club with or without them. This is definitely the spirit that I want to make my club stand out.

The institutions that control European football are working hard to come up with a plan that will allow them to finish the season, both in the national leagues and in international competitions. The footballers, however, do not quite see it clear. The Association of Spanish Soccer Players (AFE) met with the Spanish Federation (RFEF) and the League and expressed doubts as to whether it would be possible to carry out the proposal of these two institutions to return to work. The idea behind the league is to test all First and Second Division players this week, to return to training all May. Then the 11 missing matches would be played, throughout the month of June, and the players would concentrate on avoiding new infections. Sources consulted by the ARA, however, confirm that footballers – including many at Barça and Espanyol – disagree with a proposal that could force them to spend two months focused on sports cities with their teammates, far from their families. In addition, they express their doubts about the security that the journeys would have during these last days.

This weekend the RFEF and the League made an agreement with the Sports High Council (CSD) to finish the competition. Within the agreement, part of the profits from football would go to other sports with less resources. Thus, according to the League, over the next four years professional football will spend 200 million euros on women’s football, non-professional football and other sports federations. While waiting for the permission of the Ministry of Health, the League wants to start working this week on tests for players, which are not clear. And some have directly said they refuse to play, such as Fali, a Second Division Cádiz player. Barça are waiting for new events and their players will return to training on May 4.

The Netherlands bans football until September

Many European leagues, however, need to end the competition in order to save the maximum television rights. The German Bundesliga wants to return to the pitch on May 9, while in Italy they want to return to training on May 4. Brescia, Turin, Sampdoria, Udinese, SPAL, Genoa, Fiorentina and Cagliari are opposed. UEFA on Tuesday asked its 55 federations to end their leagues and cups however he admits he could study “special cases”. In fact, the Netherlands government banned any game until September 1, taking advantage of the fact that all clubs have already received 100% of the rights. This could be one of the special cases to study for a UEFA who wants local competitions to be completed by mid-July to finish the Champions League this August. On schedule, Barça-Naples return in the eighth finals will be played on August 8 and the final will be on 29th in Istanbul. UEFA, however, reminded that if covid-19 does not allow it, priority is to finish the leagues before the Champions League.

The Camp Nou will have a commercial last name for the first time, the season 2020-21. The board of directors of the club has decided to give up ‘title rights’ from Camp Nou to the Barça Foundation to fight against coronavirus, for only one season. The club’s commercial area is already looking for a company that would like to be the star of the first agreement of its kind in club history, because so far Barça’s stadiums have never had a trade name. Barça’s idea was to be able to finance part of the Espai Barça project, the club’s future stadium, with a last name, but as the works have been delayed this possibility is still a future option.

Before, then, the idea is that the Camp Nou has a last name in the 2020-21 season, but the economic benefits would go to help the Barça Foundation, and not to improve the club’s economy. According to the statement, the idea is to “raise revenue that will be invested in research projects aimed at fighting the effects of covid-19 being carried out in Catalonia and the rest of the world.”

Barça, through the Foundation, has been carrying out a series of actions since the beginning of this health emergency and collaborates with institutions, companies and entities with human and material resources. “The Foundation has managed actions against covid-19 in recent weeks, such as the club awareness campaign, the transfer of facilities, the collaboration with club partners like Tencent and Taiping to import medical equipment, adapting programs to keep children and their educators in contact, disseminate cyberbullying prevention tips and organize meetings with sick children in Sant Joan de Déu with our athletes, Some examples, “he said.

According to the club, this one-season transfer of the trade name is compatible with the marketing of the title rights of the future Camp Nou to finance the Espai Barça project, as approved by the club members in a 2014 referendum.Now the Foundation is launching this asset of the title rights and “will allocate the revenue that a sponsor contributes to the service of an essential cause for the benefit of all.” “The contribution will be used to create a fund that will be divided as follows: one part will be dedicated to a covid-19 project, sponsored by the same sponsor, and the rest will be shared among other projects which are being developed in such a way. parallel. “

These projects will be selected by a monitoring committee composed of the club’s first vice-president and the Foundation’s vice-president, Jordi Cardoner Casaus, the club’s vice-president in charge of the club’s commercial area, and Oriol Tomàs, the Foundation’s general director. Barça, Maria Vallès, the president of the Medical College of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Padrós, and the head of the club’s medical services, Ramon Canal, in accordance with the selection criteria established. This committee will also manage the financing of these projects, through the fund that will be created from the amount obtained with the sponsorship.

More than 30 clubs in Second Division B have submitted a proposal to the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to reform the division system by taking advantage of the covid-19 crisis and create a new category, the “elite” Second Division. A few days ago, the Federation informed the clubs that after meeting with the Higher Sports Council (CSD) it had been agreed that the non-professional categories of Spanish football could not be over. But the RFEF president was proposing one play-off end to single match to decide which teams could go up. The Rubiales proposal was a season without reduction, which meant increasing the number of Second B clubs, currently 80, to 98.

Cadena SER has published the definitive proposal of these clubs, an idea that, as ARA advanced one week ago, would mean creating a category with two groups of 20 teams between the Second Division and the Second B that would remain below, with four groups also of 20 teams. Some clubs wanted to create this category for the 2021/22 season, but more than 30 believe that it must be done this summer, and they have requested this in a letter. The proposal, as the ARA has learned, divides the Catalan clubs. Some support it, some still do not show up, and some are clear that they will fight against the idea, especially the Nàstic de Tarragona, who would play in the fourth category of state football.

The clubs proposal would have two possibilities. One would be to consider the season to end, not even with one play-off end. That is, this proposal would mean that this year no team would go up to Second A and none would go down to Second B. In this scenario, the teams in the new category would be in the top 10 classified in the four groups currently divided into one northern group and one southern group. The Catalan teams that would play in the new bronze division would be Barça B, Sabadell, Cornellà, Lleida, Olot and Espanyol B. Also among the chosen ones would be Andorra, as well as Castellón, Vila -real B and La Nucía del País Valencià. Three clubs in the Islands, Atlético Baleares, Ibiza and Penya Esportiva, are also part of this group.

The second proposal would be to create the same system but assuming four teams would go up and down this year. In this second proposal, the 40 teams selected would be the four that would drop from Second B, and be ranked among the top 10 in each group that had not gone up. The affected Catalan clubs would be the same.

The proposal does not like the clubs that would be in a Second B turned into the fourth category. In Catalonia they would be Llagostera, Nàstic, El Prat and Badalona, ​​as well as Atlético Llevant, Valencia Mestalla, Hercules and Oriola.