Jose Luis Nunez

José Luis Núñez Clemente, also known in Catalan as Josep Lluís Núñez (Baracaldo, September 7, 1931 - Barcelona, December 3, 2018) was a businessman Spanish, president of the Fútbol Club Barcelona between 1978 and 2000 and founder, together with his wife, of the Núñez y Navarro Group, a construction, developer and real estate company in Barcelona that has divisions of hotels, car parks, offices, warehouses and building rehabilitation. As president of Fútbol Club Barcelona, he was the person who led the Catalan team the longest, 22 years, and also the one who won the most titles during his tenure —140 in total.

Presidency of FC Barcelona

José Luis Núñez officially began his term as the 35th president in the history of F. C. Barcelona. But it was on May 6, 1978, the day of the electoral call, when he actually became president of the club. Núñez, who had never been a director of the Barcelona entity, presented his candidacy for those elections while being unknown to the club's members. His electoral slogan “Per un Barça triomfant [For a triumphant Barça]”, his ambition and youth —he was, at 46, the youngest candidate— convinced the majority of the electoral mass: he won 10 352 votes, compared to 9,537 for Ferran Ariño and 6,202 for Nicolau Casaus, whom he incorporated into his board as vice president.

Social Mass

Núñez always maintained that, for F.C. Barcelona to be economically strong, it had to be socially strong and have the highest possible number of members. At the end of 1978, when Núñez became president, the club had 77,905 members. In the year 2000, when he left the presidency, the club had more than 106,000 members, which made it the largest sports entity in Spain and one of the largest in the world in number of members. This spectacular increase in the number of members was possible thanks to the extensions of the Camp Nou, the policy of recruiting great players that would attract the public and a policy of low-price subscriptions. The subscriptions to the Camp Nou, which allowed free access to all the matches of the season, including the European competitions, were always comparatively below the prices of the subscriptions of the rest of the big European clubs.

Another of the phenomena that characterized Núñez's presidency was the spectacular number of fan clubs of the club. In 1978 the club had 96 supporters clubs, all in Spanish territory; in the year 2000 it exceeded 1,300, spread over countries on five continents. Núñez placed special emphasis on taking care of the clubs, understood as ambassadors of the club. In this sense, he promoted the aid to the supporters clubs and the world meeting of Barcelona supporters clubs that was held every year.

Club assets

One of the facts that coincides in highlighting the management of Núñez is the patrimonial increase that the club enjoyed: he remodeled and expanded the Camp Nou stadium on several occasions until placing it in a capacity of 125,000 spectators and turning it into one one of the most prominent sports venues in Europe. He also built the Miniestadi in 1982, created the Barcelona Football Club Museum in 1984, remodeled the Palau Blaugrana to increase its capacity to 8,500 spectators, and created a residence for youth players at La Masía in 1979. In recent years into his tenure, he bought the land in San Juan Despí, where he conceived the construction of the Joan Gamper Sports City, whose works would begin months after his resignation.

According to the club's data, F. C. Barcelona had assets in 1978 of 13,081,436 pesetas, and at the end of 2000 it exceeded 12,000 million pesetas.

Economy

The greatest success attributed to José Luis Núñez is his financial management. Throughout his 22 years as president, he managed to turn the club into one of the most powerful in the world from an economic point of view. Despite the large investments both in assets and in player signings, he managed to close all his management exercises with surpluses. In addition to the income achieved thanks to the increase in the number of members and the sale of tickets, Núñez was a pioneer in Spain when it came to obtaining performance and exploiting what he called "atypical income": television rights, image rights of the players, exploitation of static advertising and exploitation of commercialization. The only thing he always kept out of publicity was the first team soccer jersey, a fact that made F.C. Barcelona the only professional club in Europe that did not wear advertising on its jersey, along with Athletic Club.

Its good economic management allowed F. C. Barcelona to be one of the only four clubs in Spain that were not forced to become a sports limited company.

Núñez's interest in achieving maximum economic benefits also earned him some criticism. His harshness when it comes to renewing the players and increasing their salaries earned him numerous criticisms. Coach Johan Cruyff himself stated on various occasions that "the money should be on the pitch, not in the bank." The salary containment policy caused the departure of great players such as Diego Armando Maradona, Schuster, Luis Milla, Ronaldo, Stoichkov, which earned him harsh criticism from the media and fans.

Titles won by the club under his presidency

Throughout the 22 years —22 seasons— of his tenure, between 1978 and 2000, F.C. Barcelona won 140 official titles among the four professional sections:

• Football Section: 27 titles
  • 7 Spanish League: 1984-85, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1997-98 and 1998-99.
  • 6 King's Cup: 1980-1981, 1982-1983, 1987-1988, 1989-1990, 1996-1997 and 1997-1998.
  • 2 Spanish League Cup: 1983 and 1986.
  • 5 Spanish Super Cup: 1983, 1991, 1992, 1994 and 1996.
  • 1 European Cup / UEFA Champions League: 1991-92.
  • 4 UEFA Coup: 1978-79, 1981-82, 1988-89 and 1996-97.
  • 2 UEFA Super Cup: 1992 and 1997.

• Basketball Section: 26 titles
  • 10 ACB League: 1981, 1983, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1999.
  • 9 King's Cup: 1978-1979, 1979-1980, 1980-1981, 1981-1982, 1982-1983, 1986-1987, 1987-1988, 1990-1991 and 1993-1994.
  • 2 Coup of Europe: 1985 and 1986.
  • 2 Korać Cup: 1987 and 1999.
  • 1 European Super Cup: 1986-1987.
  • 1 World Club Championship: 1984-1985.
  • 1 Spanish Super Cup: 1987-1988.

• Basketball section: 50 titles
  • 13 Asobal League: 1979-1980, 1981-1982, 1985-1986, 1987-1988, 1988-1989, 1989-1990, 1990-1991, 1991-1992, 1995-1996, 1996-1997, 1997-1998, 1998-1999 and 1999-2000.
  • 10 King's Cup: 1982-1983, 1983-1984, 1984-1985, 1987-1988, 1989-1990, 1992-1993, 1993-1994, 1996-1997, 1997-1998 and 1999-2000.
  • 9 Spanish Super Cup: 1986-1987, 1988-1989, 1989-1990, 1990-1991, 1991-1992, 1993-1994, 1996-1997, 1997-1998 and 1999-2000.
  • 3 ASSOBAL Cup: 1994-1995, 1995-1996 and 1999-2000.
  • 6 European Cup: 1990-1991, 1995-1996, 1996-1997, 1997-1998, 1998-1999 and 1999-2000.
  • 5 European collection: 1983-1984, 1984-1985, 1985-1986, 1993-1994 and 1994-1995.
  • 4 European Super Cup: 1996-1997, 1997-1998, 1998-1999 and 1999-2000.

• Skating hockey section: 37 titles
  • 10 OK League: 1978-1979, 1979-1980, 1980-1981, 1981-1982, 1983-1984, 1984-1985, 1995-1996, 1997-1998, 1998-1999 and 1999-2000.
  • 7 King's Cup: 1978-1979, 1980-1981, 1984-1985, 1985-1986, 1986-1987, 1993-1994 and 1999-2000.
  • 9 European Cup: 1978-1979, 1979-1980, 1980-1981, 1981-1982, 1982-1983, 1983-1984, 1984-1985, 1996-1997 and 1999-2000.
  • 1 Coup from Europe: 1986-1987.
  • 8 European Super Cup: 1979-1980, 1980-1981, 1981-1982, 1982-1983, 1983-1984, 1984-1985, 1996-1997 and 1999-2000.
  • 1 Intercontinental Cup: 1997-1998.
  • 1 Iberian Cup: 1999-2000.

The soccer team

During his 22-year presidency —21 football seasons—, the F.C. Barcelona first team won 30 titles —7 Leagues, 6 Copas del Rey, 5 Spanish Super Cups, 2 League Cups, 1 European Cup, 4 Cup Winners' Cups, 2 European Super Cups and 3 Catalan Cups—, and the team was among the best in the world. Likewise, the team played two European Cup finals, 1 Cup Winners' Cup final and 3 Copa del Rey finals. The club was runner-up in the Spanish League 6 times. However, they were not 22 years of continuous success, but there were various ups and downs, with great successes and failures.

Núñez, who never had a technical secretary or sports director, personally directed the club's sports policy, dealing directly with the team's coaches. In total he had 13 coaches, and made an investment of 36,088 million pesetas (216.8 million euros) in the signings of new players throughout the 21 seasons he presided over.

Núñez's management, footballingly speaking, can be divided into four stages:

• 1978-1988: The first unstable decade.
• 1988-1994: The Golden Age of Johan Cruyff's Dream Team.
• 1994-1996: Cruyff's crisis.
• 1996-2000: The transition and the Barça de Van Gaal.

The opposition to his administration

The current president of F. C. Barcelona, Joan Laporta, was one of the members of the opposition group Elefant Blau, they wanted to carry out a different administration of the club and put an end to the Nuñista period.

Treasury Case

On July 28, 2011, he was sentenced to 6 years in prison, along with his son José Luis Núñez Navarro, and to pay a fine of two million euros for the crime of bribery —bribery— and another 36,000 euros of fine for document falsification for his involvement in the "Treasury Case", crimes of which he always declared himself innocent. The judgment of the Provincial Court of Barcelona considered it proven that Núñez, father and son, bribed tax inspectors with almost one million euros in order to stop declaring approximately 13.1 million to the treasury between 1991 and 1999. The financial adviser to the Núñez family, Salvador Sánchez Guiu, to six years in prison and a fine of 2 million euros. The sentence was appealed before the Supreme Court, so they were not imprisoned and only the withdrawal of the passport and the obligation to appear before the court every 15 days was agreed. On November 16, 2014, José Luis Núñez entered the Quatre Camins prison in the municipality of La Roca del Vallés, Barcelona, after the sentence for the crime of bribery was reduced to two years and two months, a fine of 1.5 million euros and disqualification from public office for seven years. After serving his sentence, he returned to his activity at the head of the Núñez y Navarro real estate group. Subsequently, the Tax Agency again carried out verification and investigation actions on the exercises included in the process and concluded that there was no type of fraud.^{[citation required]}