War and peace at Mallorca

A tense meeting lasting more than six hours on Monday appears to have brought to an end the most serious institutional crisis to have engulfed Mallorca since the club entered into the hands of administrators in May, 2010: a week of crossed words among the board of directors of the Balearic club that has ended with the arrival of a new coach, Joaquín Caparrós, and the departure of Mallorca's most famous family of supporters and employees, the Nadals.

The act of disassociation carried out by former Barcelona and Mallorca star Miguel Ángel Nadal was one charged with symbolism against the majority shareholder and club vice president, Llorenç Serra Ferrer. The Nadals were the main allies of Michael Laudrup, whose dispute with Serra Ferrer led to his resignation from the Mallorca bench last week.

The dissatisfaction of the Nadal clan ? which holds 10 percent of Mallorca's shares ? with Serra Ferrer's management of the club has been made plain in the past few days. Miguel Ángel Nadal, who temporarily took the reins of the team after Laudrup's departure, attributed Mallorca's tie with Osasuna to the departed Dane.

"It's a disgrace," opined Rafael Nadal. "As a fan, I would have liked things to have been handled differently."

Toni Nadal, the uncle and coach of tennis player Rafael, backed his soccer-star nephew's viewpoint: "Laudrup gave Mallorca prestige. Tension is bad when it is made worse."

And there has been plenty of tension at Mallorca. The Nadals did not understand the lack of support shown to Laudrup, who kept the team in the top flight last season with a squad shorn of senior players and loaded with youth teamers and free transfers. Of the same opinion is the club's director general ? installed by the administrators ? Pedro Terrasa. The board members loyal to Serra Ferrer had publicly discredited Terrasa in the local media, drumming up a conspiracy theory designed to overthrow the majority shareholder.

"My impression is that Terrasa's hand is behind the operation. Since he arrived at the club there has been a plethora of continuous dramas. There is interest in ruining Serra Ferrer," said board member Gabriel Cerdà. "Either Terrasa goes or we do," added his colleague Miquel Coca. It did not help smooth matters that Terrasa publicly thanked Laudrup for his consideration of the club's economic plight when negotiating the terms of his contract termination.

However, after the meeting this week business appeared to have been restored to normal. Coca and Cerdà apologized for their comments and Terrasa pledged his loyalty to the board.

But the institutional sheathing of swords has not prevented the bankruptcy administrators from their task of slashing the club's economic outlay. This week they ratified Serra Ferrer's authorization to carry out Mallorca's operations with a cap of 70 percent of the club's budget, a task that began on Tuesday when Caparrós signed on the dotted line.

The former Sevilla, Athletic Bilbao and Deportivo coach returns to Spain after a short-lived experience in Swiss soccer. Two months after signing for Neuchâtel, Caparrós left in protest at the treatment meted out to employees by the club's owner, Chechnyan businessman Bulat Chagaev. After a loss, Chagaev entered the locker room with his bodyguards and entered into a fierce argument with Caparrós, who was then replaced by Víctor Muñoz, himself a former coach of Mallorca.

"In enthusiasm, collective effort and unity nobody in this league should beat us," said Caparrós at his presentation on Tuesday. "Mallorca has seven points on the table, which shows it has competed. I see a young squad, we have gathered some data and we were very impressed with the quality and quantity of the club's sporting installations."

Caparrós has signed until the end of the season "because it is important that both parties, the technical staff and the board, get to know each other."