FC Barcelona´s President Joan Laporta analyses the situation of the current team in an in-depth interview with Barca´s official website:


FCB: When the team resumes activity after the league break, we will be moving into the final stages of the season. What are the club’s objectives for the next few months?


Joan Laporta: "Of course, on a sporting level we want to win the league and the cup. I think that would be a success, would mean a very successful season, but in the short term we want to take things a game at a time and increase our lead on the other teams. And that can only be achieved with a lot of concentration, motivation and keeping up the same level of effort as we have done all season. Going into the final straight I think we are in the right condition for a sprint to the finish".


FCB: Over the last few days, Pep Guardiola, a prestigious voice being a former player who played such a major role in Barça’s contemporary history, has put forward the idea of how difficult it is to retain titles. In recent years one of the club’s challenges has been ‘the continuity of success’. Why is it so hard for us?


Joan Laporta: "Because everybody wants to win and only one team can, that’s why it’s so hard. That’s why winning is such an achievement. But anyway, we are going about things in the right way, and working to continue the success of winning the league twice in a row, we have won the Champions League, those are the most important titles. I think we have to keep on being ambitious, aspiring to carry on winning. But it is hard, because everybody wants to win, and only one team can, it is getting so much more difficult because there is so much competition. But we have always been ready to give it a go and that’s very positive. We have our faith in a model that is somehow creating a positive tension at Barça, a feeling that we can win and carry on winning".


FCB: It is sometimes as if we have very short memories, and that when we win it is the most normal thing in the world…


Joan Laporta: "I think that whenever we win we have to keep looking ahead and trying to carry on winning and doing it better and better each time. At Barça we are highly demanding because we make demands of ourselves and want to win, and to do better each time, we want to win by playing well, we want to win by playing fair, we want to winning by being the best, we want to be recognised as the best. That is one of the great things about this club, and that is why we have such a strong membership and have set so many sporting standards at so many times: whether we win or not. I think the demands we make of ourselves, to win and to win in the best possible way, and to be recognised for being the best, those are our aspirations".


FCB: In recent years one of the club’s challenges has been ‘the continuity of success’. Why is it so hard for us?


Joan Laporta: "Because everybody wants to win and only one team can, that’s why it’s so hard. That’s why winning is such an achievement. But anyway, we are going about things in the right way, and working to continue the success of winning the league twice in a row, we have won the Champions League, those are the most important titles. I think we have to keep on being ambitious, aspiring to carry on winning. But it is hard, because everybody wants to win, and only one team can, it is getting so much more difficult because there is so much competition. But we have always been ready to give it a go and that’s very positive. We have our faith in a model that is somehow creating a positive tension at Barça, a feeling that we can win and carry on winning".


FCB: Is it a risk to be too preventative, because that suggests we do not have confidence in the potential of this team?


Joan Laporta: "That element comes into it too. The ideas of confidence, of the credibility of a winning team. Barça today is a team that has shown it can keep on winning, it is a team that has credibility, that has a track record. And it is a team in which the coaching staff has every confidence in the squad, and we do too. We have our total confidence in the players and coaches".


FCB: Is the notion of the difficultly of retaining titles and continuing to win compatible with the summertime declaration that the target is to win every title on offer?


Joan Laporta: "At the start of the season, our objectives have to be as ambitious as possible. Our aspirations always have to be as high as possible, but always with every respect for our opponents. We said we wanted to win all of the competitions we were in. And I feel that was a legitimate aspiration and forms part of that positive tension because if you don’t aim to win seven titles and end up with two, then that’s great, and two of the most important ones. It’s totally legitimate, licit, and I understand that things have to be done that way because we have to make our aspirations clear at the start of the season. So there is nothing else to say on the matter".


FCB: Speaking about the challenge of ongoing ‘success’. I understand that the people in charge of the finances, of more material interests, have to be aware that we are not always going to win. Nobody has ever managed that and it would be very dull were it ever to happen. But should we also insist that the members and fans are clear about that too?


Joan Laporta: "I think the members want to win all the time, as do we. The thing is you always have to remember that this is a sport and that you can lose as well. In that respect, our fans are very sporting. The truth is that beyond the disappointment of defeat there is always the chance to make a global analysis of the situation and we can still come to the conclusion that we are going through a good period and need to keep going on with things. When members do not feel that that is the case, they have the right channels to make their feelings clear, and they do. The way they can ‘take the club’s pulse’ is great. In that respect the members always want to win, but they also have to be aware that we can’t win all the time, it’s like the way you have to accept the laws of the game and the dynamics of this sport".


FCB: But when a result on the pitch puts a stop to that increasing speed in terms of expectations of victory, what airbag does the club have to ensure the circle is sill virtuous?


Joan Laporta: "The ‘airbag’ is the sporting spirit, the ‘airbag’ is that which means that when you stumble you will always be able to get up and carry on, and never give anything up as lost, and to renew motivations. I think it is essential to be motivated to achieve the targets you set, because nothing happens automatically. Barça is a team with a soul, with sentiment, and people live it all with so much emotion, so much passion, and that is all the way down through the club. Of course it affects us when we stumble, and we feel despair. But those are passing moments because we know how intense the dynamic is at this club and it is our spirit that causes us to keep on fighting, to continue making the effort to achieve the goals we set".


FCB: Is Barça still in a ‘virtuous circle’? What kind of safety net does the institution have for when a result on the pitch puts a halt to the breakneck speed at which the expectations of victory are hurtling forwards?


Joan Laporta: "I think that the way Barça is circling always has a touch of virtuosity, it is something implanted, ingrained in the club. You always seek excellence, you want the best at all times. So what we call the ‘virtuous circle’ is continuing. I now understand that it is starting to spiral upwards and the club is enjoying one of the finest moments in its history".


FCB: Joan Laporta will soon have been president of Barça for 4 years, along with his board of directors. Has the club changed its concept over that time, and is there therefore a need to review certain policies?


Joan Laporta: "Yes, in fact we are doing that. When we were re-elected we presented a new business plan, a new strategic plan. We are at least working on the basic characteristics of the strategic plan, and the details will be defined before the season is over. Evidently new and different challenges have emerged, and in that respect, I’d say that is only natural. There is a natural progression on what has been done. Four years ago, in 2003, there was a certain situation that also required specific measures that related to the ways things were then. The situation in 2007, this year, is fortunately much better in all areas of the club, in everything related to the way this club is seen around the world. Therefore, there are now new challenges, the need for a new strategic plan, a new business plan. It is in that respect that we have been working. And we are aiming to follow the same lines as before with a model that is proving successful, the same management model, and so in that respect, as well as the strategic plan we are fine-tuning, we can say that club is being managed in a sustained and strongly and viably consolidated way".


FCB: The elements for reflection that brought you to the presidency in 2003 are still valid but the tools are different today because the diagnosis is different.


Joan Laporta: "Let’s see. The conceptual elements are evidently the same. We are still involved in a sports project that includes the essence of Barça, which means spectacle, trying to win, playing fair, setting standards, being considered the best and perhaps our present approach comes from having won important titles, we want to come first, but the club feels it is more important to be the best than to come first. Because you know that if you are the best, you will generally end up winning. But conceptually, our plan is to do things from a pro-Catalan viewpoint with no complexes about doing so, and I understand that one of the essences of Barça is the fact that Barça is a Catalan football club, that is firmly rooted in the country, and very much appreciated by the country. We will be continuing with this pro-Catalan viewpoint with no complexes and this idea of international projection. Similarly, meanwhile, we have our famous “more than a club” slogan, and we want to go one step further, from “more than a club” to “more than a club in the world” and that has required a series of decisions to move us in that direction".