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WITHDRAWAL: Josep Maria Bartomeu and Lionel Messi have not been agreed recently. Now the president has resigned. Photo: BROCHURE / FC BARCELONA
Josep Maria Bartomeu resigns as president of Barcelona. At a press conference, he said that the last thing the board did before leaving was to approve the club to participate in a European super league.
The president of Barcelona, Josep Maria Bartomeu, has resigned. The rest of the board has done the same. Bartomeu himself confirmed it at a press conference on Tuesday night. He has been in office since 2014.
– I’m here tonight to say I’m retiring. The rest of the board does the same, Bartomeu said.
At the same time, he came with the shocking revelation that Barcelona are saying yes to a European super league.
– Yesterday we accepted the club’s participation in a European super league. This is a project started by several of the biggest clubs in Europe, said Bartomeu. He also added that the decision must be approved by the club’s members.
A week ago Sky Sports wrote that several of the major English clubs are in talks about the new super league. As VG mentioned two years ago, this has been a topic among the biggest clubs in Europe in the past.
Bartomeu says the new tournament can secure the club’s financial future and help it grow.
The president’s dramatic resignation comes after a board meeting Tuesday afternoon. In September, a signature campaign was launched to oust Bartomeu through a motion of no confidence. They needed a little more than 16,000 votes for this to happen, but they eventually submitted 20,731 votes.
It was originally supposed to be a vote on Bartomeu’s future among club members, but the president has now stepped down before the vote.
The corona pandemic has created problems for voting, as it would require several thousand people to go to the same place to vote, and that several of them are over 60 years old and therefore vulnerable to the virus.
A new presidential election will be held, but in the meantime, a temporary board will take over the daily running of the big club. Víctor Font, Joan Laporta and Jordi Roche have been nominated for the presidency.
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Lately he’s been assaulting Bartomeu. This summer, the problems reached new heights when Lionel Messi threatened to leave the club. The Argentine has publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the club’s president.
– I told the club, especially the president, that I wanted to leave, I have done it all season. I’ve been telling you that for years. It has been a difficult year, and I haven’t had a good time in training or in the dressing room, Messi said in an interview with Goal when he decided to stay at the club.
Bartomeu’s presidency began brilliantly with “The Treble” under Luis Enrique in 2015. Over the past five years, Barcelona have faced a series of sporting problems and Bartomeu’s popularity has plummeted. Star players like Messi and Piqué have been critical of the club’s operations recently, and this year Barcelona was able to report losses of just over a billion kronor.
