Laporta seeks to strengthen Barca ties with UNICEF
BARCELONA, June 30, (Agencies): Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta said he will do his best to put the name of UNICEF or another humanitarian cause back in a prominent position on the team shirt if he returns to the helm in next month’s elections.
Laporta negotiated the initial deal with UNICEF almost 10 years ago during his previous spell as president from 2003 to 2010 that saw a logo put on the shirt for the first time in the club’s history.
Under the last board, led by Sandro Rosell and then Josep Maria Bartomeu, deals were struck to have first the Qatar Foundation and then Qatar Airways on the front of the shirt and it saw the UNICEF name relegated to the back.
“I will do my best. I will do my best to get a sponsor that makes it possible so that we have UNICEF again on our shirt or another motif that carries a similar meaning to UNICEF,” he told Reuters on Monday. Laporta has doubts that the contract with Qatar that runs until next year is the best option for the club.
“There were a lot of fans complaining who wanted to know more and I am suspicious that it is not a good contract for FC Barcelona.
“In any case we prefer UNICEF, we think that it is the best for the image of FC Barcelona to be committed with a society like this and it is a way that we have to return to the world society what they are giving to us.”
Laporta felt Barca were respected around the world not just for their football but for their work with UNICEF when he was president.
“They (last board) are Qatar, we are UNICEF. They were saying things that I didn’t believe — that only Qatar is the proposal that we could have,” he said.
“Everyone admired us, we were champions, we won a lot with a genuine style of playing football but at the same time because we had UNICEF on the shirt and we helped develop programmes for vulnerable children.”
Laporta faces stiff opposition from outgoing president Bartomeu in the elections on July 18 fo l low ing Barcelona’s treble success last season.
Requests by Gervinho for a helicopter and a private beach as part of the deal that would take him from Roma to Al-Jazira were described as ‘obscene’ by the Emirati club, according to reports on Tuesday.
Gervinho was set to end his mitigated two-year spell with the Serie A club and join Al-Jazira in the United Arab Emirates this week on a reported fouryear deal worth 13m euros.
But the move collapsed because of Gervinho’s string of demands, which also included accommodation for his family and regular airplane tickets to travel to his native Ivory Coast, said La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Reports from the Emirates suggest Gervinho’s demands alerted the club to possible future problems with the player, and they are not expected to pursue the deal any further.
Gervinho remains on the market but will now be expected to turn up for Roma’s first training camp of the summer at their Trigoria base just outside Rome on July 5.
Mexico’s Club America, bound for the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan in December, kicks off its CONCACAF Champions League trophy defense against Honduran side Motagua in August, organizers announced Monday.
The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) unveiled the group phase schedule for the 24-team tournament, which begins Aug 4 and features Club America’s opening Group E match the next night at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca.