FC Barcelona board reveals plans to honour Johan Cruyff at Clásico

The FC Barcelona board met at an ordinary session today Tuesday at the Camp Nou, and publicly expressed their gratitude to the members, supporters and numerous other clubs and institutions from the sporting and other spheres that have come to the Memorial over the last few days to pay their last respects to Johan Cruyff.

The club shall continue in official mourning until the day of El Clásico on Saturday, when a number of actions have been planned to coincide with the visit of Real Madrid to the Camp Nou.

A mosaic of 90,000 cards shall bear the message ‘Gràcies Johan”, which shall be repeated on the shirts of the Barça players, where the world champions logo normally features. Both teams will enter the field with children wearing shirts with the same message, ‘Gràcies Johan’, as well as the names of the Cruyff and FC Barcelona Foundations on the back.

The match will also be attended by all of the living former presidents of the Catalan club, namely Agustí Montal, Raimon Carrasco, Josep Lluís Núñez, Joan Gaspart, Enric Reyna, Joan Laporta, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu.

The game will also be preceded by a minute’s silence in honour of Johan Cruyff, including the projection of a video tribute to the great man’s career.

Other decisions

• The board passed the financial statement for the 2015/16 season, which shall be presented to the LFP on March 31. The positive balance is 5% higher than the amount budgeted for, and costs are in line with expectations.
• The board has approved the first Basketball FCBEscola, to be set up in the city of Barcelona, and which will be modelled on the already existing soccer schools. The exact details will be presented at an event next week.
• The board has nominated Sabine Paquer as its Compliance Officer; an autonomous and independent position whose responsibility will be to ensure that all club procedures comply with certain criteria, most particularly including transparency.
• Manel Mangado, until now club treasurer, has been named as the Club’s new internal auditor, whose role is to ensure compliance of all administrative and financial operations, answering directly to the general management of the club.