The group of veteran footballers who all wear shirts with Johan Cruyff’s No 14 on the back play each Saturday morning overlooking the Mediterranean south of Barcelona. Last Saturday, they unfurled a flag before the game.
“Joan Laporta. President,” it read, in Barca’s colours. Most of the team which plays for all 52 weeks of the year in normal times posed with the flag. Most are Barca fans, most Catalan. The group were close to their hero Cruyff and close too to the former Barca president Laporta. He came to visit last month as he toured as many of the 109,531 Barca socios as possible, like a politician hoping to secure their vote.
The club’s latest presidential election came about because 20,000 petition signatories demanded an autumn vote of no confidence on president Josep Maria Bartomeu as their club sank into an institutional and financial crisis.
In the latest twist of negative news lines, police raided the club offices and also arrested Bartomeu as they investigated allegations that club monies were being used to silence critics on social media.
Laporta, who oversaw the most successful era in Barca’s presidency between 2003-2010, put himself into a crowded field and soon became favourite. He ran for president in 2015 but was well beaten by Bartomeu in the year Barca won the Treble.
On Sunday, Barca’s members voted – by proxy and in person as thousands of them came to Camp Nou. Lionel Messi was one and voted for the first time, before taking one of his sons into the towering, tiered stands for a view of the pitch he himself never sees. Former captain Carles Puyol voted too – as did the three club presidential candidates.
The mood was optimistic and enthusiastic amid the pandemic gloom at the end of a week of cloudy weather. Fans talked of hope and a brighter future. They'd been dismayed by results on the pitch, at the way the club's debt crept towards €1 billion ($1.186bn), as well as Messi's treatment which caused him to demand to leave soon after the 8-2 hammering by Bayern Munich. There were many other areas of contention including the way Neymar was allowed to leave and how the record transfer fee received for him was squandered.
Charismatic, popular and not backward at coming forward, Laporta is a populist and separatist who wants Catalonia to be independent from Spain and briefly served as a politician in 2010. In this club campaign, he traded on what he brought to the club last time – a second European Cup, Lionel Messi, league titles.
He’s a genuine fan too. A lawyer, he was part of a supporters’ group which wanted to disrupt the established order in the late 90s. That ultimately led to him becoming president in 2003 on a ticket to bring David Beckham to the club.
Beckham joined Madrid's Galacticos and had no intention of joining Barcelona but Laporta nicked Ronaldinho out of the clutches of Manchester United. The Brazilian had already told friends he was going to Manchester. United didn't think Barca, who were facing financial problems, had the money.
They didn’t count on the club’s strong connections and credit lines to pre-2008 economic crisis Catalan banks. Barca has long been supported by Catalonia’s business class.
Ronaldinho revolutionised the club, Messi inherited his mantle and Laporta made bold moves such as pushing for Pep Guardiola to be first team manager in 2008 when others on his board wanted Jose Mourinho. Laporta called that right.
Football is emotion and Laporta, 58, played on that brilliantly. When he won the well-contested election with 54 per cent of Sunday’s vote (second place Victor Font reached 30 per cent) he and his team sang Barca’s anthem like fans. His predecessor Bartomeu never looked more than a grey bureaucrat with a greater love for basketball than football. Pep Guardiola and the Cruyff family were among those who congratulated Laporta.
Football is tribal too. Soon after Laporta announced his intention to be president again, he paid for a huge billboard close to Real Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium saying he was looking forward to seeing them again.
He meant Barca fans who lived in the Spanish capital but also, of course, Real Madrid fans for whom he’d caused so many problems as Barcelona, who’d only won one league title between 1974 and 1991, became football's pre-eminent force. None of his rivals marketed themselves as well.
Barca fans hope he can make their club the best in the world again. Laporta wants Messi, 33, to stay but he has to get the club out of a financial hole which saw player wages cut and paid late but also, in his words, “to again make Barca a reference point in the football world.”
He has to do that in a pandemic when Barça have suffered more than any other club from a loss of fans who visit for games (average crowds are 78,000) and the international tourists who snap up expensive match tickets and fill the club’s museum and shops.
On Monday, Laporta went to see current manager, Ronald Koeman, who has overseen 13 wins in the last 16 games and has led the team to close the gap at the top of the table to just three points.
Laporta, never passing up a media opportunity, was wearing a face mask with Cruyff’s number 14 on it. When Koeman, who was signed by Cruyff, scored the goal which won Barca’s first ever European Cup in 1992, Laporta was there as a fan.
Laporta has talked of the team coming back from the 4-1 defeat to PSG this week, but just keeping the club's head above water will be progress this time.
________________________________________________________________
Barca knock Sevilla out of Copa del Rey: player ratings
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
UAE%20v%20West%20Indies
%3Cp%3EFirst%20ODI%20-%20Sunday%2C%20June%204%20%0D%3Cbr%3ESecond%20ODI%20-%20Tuesday%2C%20June%206%20%0D%3Cbr%3EThird%20ODI%20-%20Friday%2C%20June%209%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EMatches%20at%20Sharjah%20Cricket%20Stadium.%20All%20games%20start%20at%204.30pm%0D%3Cbr%3E%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EUAE%20squad%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EMuhammad%20Waseem%20(captain)%2C%20Aayan%20Khan%2C%20Adithya%20Shetty%2C%20Ali%20Naseer%2C%20Ansh%20Tandon%2C%20Aryansh%20Sharma%2C%20Asif%20Khan%2C%20Basil%20Hameed%2C%20Ethan%20D%E2%80%99Souza%2C%20Fahad%20Nawaz%2C%20Jonathan%20Figy%2C%20Junaid%20Siddique%2C%20Karthik%20Meiyappan%2C%20Lovepreet%20Singh%2C%20Matiullah%2C%20Mohammed%20Faraazuddin%2C%20Muhammad%20Jawadullah%2C%20Rameez%20Shahzad%2C%20Rohan%20Mustafa%2C%20Sanchit%20Sharma%2C%20Vriitya%20Aravind%2C%20Zahoor%20Khan%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
IPL 2018 FINAL
Sunrisers Hyderabad 178-6 (20 ovs)
Chennai Super Kings 181-2 (18.3 ovs)
Chennai win by eight wickets
Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
CHATGPT%20ENTERPRISE%20FEATURES
%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Enterprise-grade%20security%20and%20privacy%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Unlimited%20higher-speed%20GPT-4%20access%20with%20no%20caps%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Longer%20context%20windows%20for%20processing%20longer%20inputs%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Advanced%20data%20analysis%20capabilities%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Customisation%20options%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Shareable%20chat%20templates%20that%20companies%20can%20use%20to%20collaborate%20and%20build%20common%20workflows%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Analytics%20dashboard%20for%20usage%20insights%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Free%20credits%20to%20use%20OpenAI%20APIs%20to%20extend%20OpenAI%20into%20a%20fully-custom%20solution%20for%20enterprises%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Mica
Director: Ismael Ferroukhi
Stars: Zakaria Inan, Sabrina Ouazani
3 stars
Dengue%20fever%20symptoms
%3Cp%3EHigh%20fever%20(40%C2%B0C%2F104%C2%B0F)%3Cbr%3ESevere%20headache%3Cbr%3EPain%20behind%20the%20eyes%3Cbr%3EMuscle%20and%20joint%20pains%3Cbr%3ENausea%3Cbr%3EVomiting%3Cbr%3ESwollen%20glands%3Cbr%3ERash%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
Fixtures
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EWednesday%2C%20April%203%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EArsenal%20v%20Luton%20Town%2C%2010.30pm%20(UAE)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EManchester%20City%20v%20Aston%20Villa%2C%2011.15pm%20(UAE)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EThursday%2C%20April%204%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ELiverpool%20v%20Sheffield%20United%2C%2010.30pm%20(UAE)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
