Scandals & Feuds ·
Death Threats at Laporta’s Home, and a Promise of No Concessions
After graffiti bearing the Boixos Nois name appeared near his home in November 2003, Barcelona’s president went to the authorities and said his campaign against stadium violence would continue.
In November 2003, the dispute between Barcelona president Joan Laporta and the radical supporters’ group Boixos Nois reached his home. Graffiti bearing the group’s name appeared near the property, with death threats and a painted crosshairs at the entrance. Laporta reported the threats and said he would continue his campaign against violence at the club without concessions.
The graffiti appeared on the façade, at a nearby shop and on street furniture. One message said, “I’m going to kill you.” Another read: “Our home is the Camp Nou and yours is the grave.” There were also insults and a warning that Laporta would not drive the writers out. Although the inscriptions carried the Boixos Nois name, the supplied accounts do not establish who painted them.
Threatening graffiti had previously appeared around the Camp Nou, while chants and insults had marked the conflict between Laporta’s board and radical supporters at matches. The messages near his home brought that conflict beyond the stadium, naming the ground and his private residence in the same threat. Contemporary reports also described threats against his family.
On November 13, Laporta said he had filed a police complaint and brought the matter to the government delegation in Barcelona. The case was now “in the hands of the police,” he said, declining further assessment. Susanna Bouis, the government delegate in Catalonia, said it was not the first time Laporta and his family had received threats and backed efforts to identify those responsible.
The Catalan government also offered its support. Its sports secretary, Josep Maldonado, said he had spoken to Laporta and called for calm and a united stand against violence. An earlier meeting of Catalonia’s anti-violence commission had unanimously supported measures taken by Laporta and his board to address violence at the Camp Nou.
Laporta kept his answer on the graffiti brief, but was explicit about the stadium: “We will continue without making any concession to the violent, with zero tolerance for the violent, and we will continue with this policy to try to end violent behaviour in the stadium.”