COLUMN: Xavi Hernandez, Joan Laporta, and the Pressure of the Virtuous Cycle

In 2003, a new FC Barcelona board led by a young quartet of executives – Joan Laporta, Sandro Rosell, Josep Maria Bartomeu, and Ferran Soriano – won a shocking victory in the club’s presidential election. They, alongside the new sporting director Txiki Bergiristain, etched their names into Barça’s history by successfully modernising a club that had become outdated and filled with cronyism after the long tenure of the Jose Luis Nunez – Joan Gaspart duo.

This modernisation process, however, was fraught with risk. In a brilliant chronicle, journalist Thore Haugstad explains the major strategic dilemma the new board had to face.

Soriano said they had two options:

1) Evolution. Cut costs, accept a few years of austerity and ‘walking through the desert’. No titles. Slow recovery.

2) Revolution. A joint effort to cut costs, restructure debt and invest in the team.

They chose the second option. Soriano knew it was risky, but felt the desert walk would enable their rivals to pull away so far that Barça might become a ‘second-tier’ club, like Valencia or Atletico Madrid. In Madrid, Florentino Perez was already signing Galacticos, while Manchester United were bringing in twice the money that Barca were. To Soriano they only really had one option. They had to act fast, risks be damned.

Soriano called this revolution option the virtuous cycle. Barca would invest money to build a team that could win titles, and that success would raise the money to invest further in the squad and repeat the cycle.

That 2003 summer, the club would sign the iconic Ronaldinho as Laporta’s alleged deal with David Beckham collapsed. While the 2003-04 season started tumultuously, Barca overtook a free-falling Galacticos era of Real Madrid to finish second in the