Barcelona presidential candidates unhappy with election date – “It’s an opportunistic process on Joan Laporta’s part” | OneFootball

On Thursday, Barcelona president Joan Laporta confirmed the date for the club’s next presidential election. The vote will take place on the 15th of March, which is earlier than many expected to be the case.

The election will coincide with Barcelona’s home match against Sevilla, and the fact that Laporta has pencilled it in for mid-season has not sat well with many – in particular, his opponents. One of those is Marc Ciria, who hit out at his rival when speaking to Sport.

“We had already planned that Laporta was going to take advantage of any opportunistic moment to call the elections. We understand that the statutes provided for it, but the normal thing was to do it with the season over and with the different teams fighting for the titles not seen in this noise.

Image via Manu Mitru/EPC

“But it is clearly an opportunistic process on Laporta’s part. We are prepared because he has already done it before, to take advantage of the inertia that suits him and not Barça. We are excited that this is a democratic club and we will accelerate so that the members give us their trust.”

Ciria also believes that if appointed, he will be able to “modernise” Barcelona, compared to Laporta’s “obsolete” model that is currently in place.

“I think it will be massive because there is clearly a debate: maintain an obsolete government model represented by Laporta or modernise the club with a different proposal like the one we represent. This polarisation of antagonistic ways of doing things will make members who have felt expelled by this mandate want to give our opinion.”

Font: “These elections are called when it suits Laporta”

Image via EP / Manu Mitru

Victor Font, who is also in the running to become Barcelona’s next president, also made it clear that he is not best pleased with the decision to hold the election on the 15th of March.

“It is obvious that these elections are called when it suits Laporta. That he doesn’t care about holding elections in the middle of a Champions League tie. But we were already expecting it, we are not surprised. We are prepared. These are very important elections for the future of Barça. The time begins to return Barça to the members.

“Of course, if March 15 finally coincides with a match against Sevilla, we demand that on that day the match be exclusively for members and that tickets are at the minimum cost. Participation must be encouraged and those who do not have season tickets cannot be discriminated against”.