Rosell’s story: “Threatened in prison, condoms and vaseline. And for a Coke they would stab each other…”

Sandro Rosell, former president of Barcelona from 2010 to 2014, recounted his ordeal in 645 days of imprisonment for a crime from which he was definitively acquitted: “I cried several times and with my eyes open…”

A traumatic and creepy tale that of Sandro Rosell. The Catalan businessman and president of the Barcelona from 2010 to 2014, he was arrested in May 2017 on charges of money laundering in relation to the purchase of the television rights to past matches of the Brazilian national team.

However, after a request for six years in prison, the Spanish national court acquitted Rosell in 2019 for lack of evidence. The former Blaugrana number one talked about his life in prison in an interview with Risto Mejidetaken from Brand: “They threatened me a couple of times. Two guys, with whom I had close friendships, came to my defense. In prison I risked being beaten, both for being president of Barcelona and for being Catalan. It happened to me once in Madrid and once in Barcelona, ​​but in both cases they defended me without me asking. In Barcelona I became very good friends with a Barcelona fan gypsy boss. A gypsy threatened me, the boss gave him a hard time and that was it”. “In prison I witnessed several fights – continues Rosell -. One time one stabbed another with a splintered stick just because he owed him a Coke.In Soto del Real the Colombian prisoners defended me more. The prison is gray and a bit musty. But at the same time there’s a lot of humanity, it’s a continuous contrast of emotions, sadness, colors and laughter. I cried a lot in prison, then I felt better”.

Rosell confesses that prisoners are given condoms and petroleum jelly upon entering the prison: “I understood that there are many homosexual relationships there, but also between people who are not”.