Opinion: Josep Maria Bartomeu will go down as the worst president in Barcelona’s history | OneFootball

It’s been a long time coming, but Josep Maria Bartomeu and his board have finally left Barcelona.

Rather than face the ignominy of a successful vote of no confidence, he jumped before he was pushed.

The only shame is that this precise scenario hadn’t happened months, or even years before.

Bartomeu took over the presidency when previous incumbent, Sandro Rosell, was ousted for corruption. Unilaterally taking his role, which is completely against the club’s statutes, Bartomeu then called elections in the wake of the club’s second treble-winning season.

He surged into power precisely on the back of that success, and the carrot of signing Atletico Madrid’s Arda Turan who, at that stage, was still a semblance of a superb footballer.

He was, however, one of many that came in at great cost and just didn’t fit the Barca template. See also, Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann etc.

Everything that made Barcelona a well-respected outfit worldwide, under the presidency of Joan Laporta and the management of Pep Guardiola, was slowly but surely eradicated.

Gerard Pique had long hinted at division between the board and the first-team, and Lionel Messi wanting to leave tells you all you need to know about what the senior side felt about their paymaster.

His litany of failures are too many to list in this article, but suffice to say that not a single tear will be shed now that he’s gone.

What he leaves behind, including Barca’s agreement to play in a European Super League and the continued delay to the building of the new Camp Nou, will only be able to be picked apart by the poor guy that comes next.

It’s likely that we won’t really know the full extent of his mismanagement for some while yet, but he will already go down as the worst president that the club has ever had.