Barca’s presidential elections are coming up next year, but the race has already started. Joan Laporta’s potential opponents are already making moves.
Last month, the 2021 runner-up to Laporta, Victor Font,
launched his candidacy at an event attended by over 1,000 people. These figures
might not seem too significant in the context of such a massive brand, but in
the particular world of FC Barcelona, every bit of support counts.
Barca’s elections will take place before the end of the
season. According to the club’s statutes, they need to be held on a day between
March and June, but there is still no confirmation on when the exact day will
be.
Candidates must have been club members for a minimum of 10
years, and they also need to reach a certain number of supporting signatures:
at least half the total votes cast in the most recent annual general assembly.
For the purposes of this election, they will need around 2,300.
According to the latest numbers released by Barca in
October, there were 112,313 club members with a right to vote. This figure will
be revised and updated when the elections are officially announced.
We have four pre-candidates for now. Laporta will be up for
re-election, and is the favourite to win.
The 63-year-old returned for a second tenure as president
when he won the elections of March 2021. He took over with the club in a pretty
sorry state, one which essentially forced Josep Maria Bartomeu into resigning
in the previous October.
It would be hard to argue against the idea that, on the
pitch, Barcelona have not dramatically improved since then. They won their
first La Liga in four years in 2022-23, and last season claimed a domestic
treble while also reaching the Champions League semi-finals — again their best
run in the competition since 2019.
Off the pitch, the desperate situation of Barcelona’s
finances has still not been resolved. It is hard to blame that on Laporta
entirely, but critics have pointed out the short-termism of the economic
policies that have allowed for renewed investment in the playing squad in
recent seasons — including those infamous levers. Others have found fault with
the delays and ballooning costs of the Camp Nou redevelopment.
Laporta’s populist style goes down well with the Barca
members who enjoy his combative and colourful charisma, but there are still
major problems. The club’s debt is the largest in world football at around €1.45billion
and they have had difficulty meeting La Liga’s spending rules.
Font, 53, is perhaps the best-placed opposition candidate as
things stand. He was the runner-up in 2021, winning 16,679 votes to Laporta’s
30,184.
Xavi Vilajoana, 52, was a pre-candidate back in 2021, and
has already announced his intention to run again. He is a former La Masia
graduate who played for the club’s third team back in the 1990s, also featuring
for local lower-league sides. From 2019
to 2021, he was the executive in charge of Barca’s youth academy.
This week, another pre-candidate entered the mix. Marc
Ciria, a 46-year-old local economist and businessman, will be in the running
for the first time. He was an advisor to Laporta’s 2015 candidacy — one they
lost to Bartomeu. He has built something of a media profile in recent years,
with his commentary on Barca’s finances.
History tells us that all of Laporta’s rivals have got their
work cut out. No serving Barca president has ever been beaten at re-election in
the club’s entire history. A split in the opposition plays into Laporta’s
hands, too.
The Messi factor
Laporta does look like he is in a strong position to be
re-elected, but another problem for him is his relationship with Messi. In his presidential campaign four years ago,
Laporta made use of his past relationship with Messi to label himself as the
president that would guarantee the Argentina international would stay at Barca.
Less than a year after he was elected, Messi left in tears
after he was told the club could not afford his contract extension. His
relationship with Laporta has been broken since. While Laporta is still in charge, it seems
difficult to see any sort of reunion happening. That is something that will
certainly be exploited by opposing candidates.
The fact that Messi chose to visit the stadium out of the
blue, without contacting Barca in any way, was on one side read as a show of
love for the club. It was also a hit on Laporta. In a sense, it has thrown a
lifeline to all the other pre-candidates. If they want to attack Laporta, here
they have a narrative they can use, one that will easily get fans on board.
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