[ad_1]
Barcelona members elected Joan Laporta as club president on Sunday, turning to the man who oversaw one of their most successful terms to get them out of an institutional and financial crisis.
Laporta, who was president of Barça between 2003 and 2010, obtained a resounding 57.6% of the votes with more than 99% of the votes counted, while Víctor Font was second with 31.8% and Toni Freixa was third with 9.1%.
Laporta succeeds Josep Maria Bartomeu, who resigned from the presidency in October to avoid facing a vote of no-confidence from the members who turned against him after Lionel Messi tried to leave the club last August and the team was defeated by 8-2 against Bayern Munich in the Champions League. League.
Messi was one of several Barça players who voted in the elections one day after beating Osasuna 2-0 to finish second in La Liga. Barça said 51,765 of the 109,531 eligible members had voted in the elections, which were postponed from January due to coronavirus restrictions in Catalonia.
Laporta, 58, was first elected in 2003 and presided over a golden period in club history that featured four La Liga titles and two Champions League titles. He won a second unopposed term in 2006, and club bylaws prevented him from running for a third in 2010.
He ran in the 2015 elections but was emphatically defeated by incumbent Bartomeu, whose campaign had been boosted by the team that won the treble a month earlier. Bartomeu was arrested last Monday in a Catalan police investigation related to allegations of mismanagement and corporate corruption that also saw the club’s Camp Nou offices raided. He has not commented on his arrest and has exercised his right not to testify in court.
The Fiver – Sign up and receive our daily soccer email.
Laporta, who celebrated his victory by singing the club’s anthem with his campaign team and drinking champagne, takes over a club with huge financial problems due to the Covid-19 pandemic that eliminates ticket revenue and negatively affects revenue. by merchandising.
The latest Barça accounts showed a gross debt of more than 1,400 million euros (1,6700 million dollars) with a net debt of 488 million euros. The club agreed to a temporary cut in player salaries last year, while it had to delay payments to players in December. However, things are looking up on the pitch, with Ronald Koeman’s team winning 13 of their last 16 league games and reaching the Copa del Rey final.
