2023-06-21 08:00:01
BarcelonaWhen he speaks in a personal capacity he does without a tie, when he speaks in the business ecosystem he wears one of any color (usually yellow) and when he speaks on behalf of Barça he wears a blue one. When contextualizing what Eduard Romeu (Barcelona, 1968) says, we must pay attention to his clothing. His dream was to join the Barça board and in 2021 he achieved it at the hands of Joan Laporta. But, in the days before the elections, the current president was not the only candidate with whom Romeu met together with José Elías, founder and president of Audax Renovables and guarantor for the lawyer to return to the box office of Camp Nou. They spoke to Jordi Farré, tried to meet Víctor Font without success and were about to sit down with Toni Freixa. The agendas, finally, did not coincide.
Since March 2021, when Laporta won the elections and appointed Romeu as his economic vice-president after the puzzle of the endorsement and the resounding resignation of Jaume Giró, he has combined Barça’s unpaid work with the business side, in which stood out in his position as vice president of Audax, a renewable energy company. Recently, as it progressed Expansion and confirmed the ARA, there has been a business and personal divorce between Elías and Romeu which will cause the latter to leave all the positions he had in the holding company of the former, Excelsior Times.
Its relationship with religion
The relationship between Romeu and Audax has broken down so forcefully that sources from the Badalona company consulted by this newspaper even doubt the stories about the past told to them by their former colleague. “Romeu always told the whole team that he was a deacon (a man who has received the first degree of the sacrament of the priestly order, the degree directly below that of a priest) and that he had gone to do missions in Africa – exposes one of the sources – But after having given for certain other stories that he told us…”.
ARA asked Romeu himself about this issue and he answered that he went “as a volunteer for several NGOs in Africa and Nepal”. In addition, he added that he is “a person with very religious convictions and, above all, aimed at helping others”. In this sense, he defines himself as “more action than prayer” and considers that “perhaps this is where the differences with the Church came from”, although he points out that this happened a long time ago. This newspaper has consulted the archbishopric of Barcelona, who has informed them that they are not aware that Romeu “is a permanent deacon of the Archdiocesan Church of Barcelona”.
The departure of Ferran Reverter
Romeu arrived at Barça encouraged, saying publicly that his ultimate goal was to be Barça president, and was one of the people who pushed for the signing of Ferran Reverter as Barça CEO. “He was very good with him, there was a lot of good feeling between the two,” says an important person from Arístides Maillol’s offices. “Romeu now knows that he is the most well-regarded and positioned person on the board in case Laporta one day has to leave the position of president for some reason.” adds. After Reverter’s departure in January 2022 and Laporta’s self-appointment as executive chairman, Romeu lived in the shadows temporarily. In fact, for a few months there was a rumor that he could resign at any time, but it was never confirmed.
“Edu is disconcerting. He has made a considerable change. If a while ago he was one of the few managers who contradicted Laporta with arguments and knowledge, now he has completely sided with him,” explains a club manager. In this sense, a person close to Laporta who considers him “very valid for the position of economic vice president of Barça, a characteristic that is noticeable when you talk about business with him”, says that “the managers who have put calés up until now were quite anonymous and Romeo wanted to be more prominent.” On the possibility that this prominence, with time to fully dedicate himself to the club, could lead him to take on the duties of general manager, he answers: “With Jan, this is difficult”.
Intermediate point in the context of cuts
Since the month of March, Joan Laporta’s board, endorsed by the club’s corporate management led by Maribel Meléndez and led by managers such as Àngel Riudalbas, has been carrying out cuts in terms of staff and the professional and amateur sections to improve numbers as much as possible before the end of the financial year on June 30. In the Blaugrana leadership, not everyone agrees with this way of doing things. Romeu, who has a lot to say about it as economic vice-president, has not taken a firm position in favor of the workers’ cuts because he considers that they will not represent a significant step forward in the club’s economic situation.
Romeu’s last public intervention was in the presentation of the financing of Espai Barça, in which he did not fail to repeat that the new Palau Blaugrana was included in the face of repeated questions from journalists on the issue and despite the fact that the numbers they didn’t fit On that day the tie was Blaugrana.
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