Barcelona President Joan Laporta puts off election talk six months out from deadline | OneFootball

Barcelona President Joan Laporta has claimed he is not currently thinking about club elections next year, with period in which to vote fast approaching. Laporta is now in the fifth year of his mandate, and must call a vote in the next six months.

Over recent years, Laporta has faced opposition from various groups, including 2021 rival Victor Font, and grandson of former President Augusti Montal, Joan Camprubi, who lead the Si al Futur and Som un clam groups. This week ‘Suma Barca’ group voted heavily in favour of considering a merger with other groups that are set to oppose Laporta in the elections, as per Sport, which Laporta confirmed must take place between the 15th of March and 15th of May next year.

Laporta ‘not thinking about elections’

Despite the vote coming just several months away, Laporta has told Catalunya Radio in an interview that they were not in his mind. Laporta would be running for his fourth term across two spells, and his fifth campaign overall.

“I’m not thinking about the elections right now. The season has just started and we’re in the thick of it. We’ll call them when it’s best for Barca, and especially for the team. They have to be called between the 15th of March and 15th of May, which wouuld be before a possible Champions League semi-final, but we haven’t decided yet.”

“Right now, I want to experience things intensely. Later, I’ll go to my office, and tonight I’ll be at a meeting with business leaders in Lloret… but I’m not thinking about the elections. I’ve had a rock and roll life.”

‘Barcelona will remain owned by its members’

One of the main criticisms levelled at Laporta from his rivals is his financial management of the club, which has seen debt continue to grow, and the club mired in salary limit issues when it comes to football. Font and others have asserted that Laporta is driving the club towards private ownership, something Laporta denied.

“As long as I am president, Barca will remain owned by its members. We are a Catalan institution, open to the world, committed to a better world, to sustainability, democracy, freedom… reducing all of this to a business, to a public limited sports company, is inappropriate.”

“We will guarantee that Barca remains owned by its members. The investment funds that raised the €1.4b that allowed us to finance our stadium saw that they were involved in something different. Their perception of this couldn’t be left unfinished because it was a national project.”

Image via EFE

Real Madrid relations ‘not good’

At one stage it seemed Barcelona and Real Madrid were destined to become partners in the Superleague project several years ago, but more recently, Barcelona have distanced themselves from the idea and from Real Madrid.

“Seeing [Florentino Perez] again was correct in manner, with respect and cordiality. A divorce isn’t possible because we’ve never been married. Relations aren’t good because they intervened in the Negreira case. They keep presenting facts that the judge has to examine… this surely has an ulterior motive.”

“We handle the rivalry with respect. It’s been said that Real Madrid put obstacles in the way of the Miami match; we didn’t discuss it. We were willing to do it because it was good for promoting La Liga and for promoting Barca. We’ll play at the Estadio de la Ceramica, and hopefully, we’ll do well.”