BARÇA

Barça elections will not be held on January 24 and a new date will be sought

The club has requested legal coverage for postal voting

T. Padilla / A. Nadal
3 min
Laporta, Font, Ferixa

BarcelonaThis Friday, from 11 am on, a telematic meeting has been held between Barça's managers -the president of the management board, Carles Tusquets, and the chief executive Óscar Grau-, the Catalan Ombudsman of the club's members, the general secretary of Sport, and Procicat, and the decision has been taken to postpone the elections and look for a new date. As the club has confirmed in a press release, the elections cannot be held on January 24, as initially planned, which opens up an unprecedented scenario in the history of Barça, since the manager should not be able to extend his mandate. Sources consulted by the ARA do not see the possibility of a vote before March.

"It is not a question of harming one or the other, Barça loses out. The club cannot be in this misgovernment for longer, it needs a president", Joan Laporta said in Catalunya Ràdio after the postponement of the elections. "I have no interest in making a concentrated government or taking joint decisions, the club members would not understand, we want elections", he added. Víctor Font also made a statement on the Catalan radio station before the postponement was announced. "I propose to work together and place the interests of the club first", he said. Toni Freixa confirmed the following: "I place myself at the disposal of the managing commission and of the club so that Barça does not lose out. This exceptional situation requires intelligent and open-minded solutions".

The Health Minister, Alba Vergés, made it clear yesterday that the final decision on a possible postponement of the elections would be in the hands of Barça. And the manager of the club has defended that, with this scenario, it cannot guarantee elections with a minimum of security and participation, which has already caused the criticism of some of the candidates, especially a Joan Laporta, who had asked to vote on the 24th affirming that "the elections must be celebrated and they will be done with all the measures and protocols of security and sanitary that correspond. Barcelona must mobilise in favour of the elections without any interference with the intention of suspending them". Víctor Font, for his part, has criticised the company managing the elections, considering that they had plenty of time to prepare alternative situations, but accepts the date change, as he prioritises "the maximum number of votes in such important elections". Toni Freixa had said that he would accept the final decision of this meeting.

The possibility of postal voting

In view of the new date, the club has requested legal coverage so that voting can also be done by regular mail. Doing so, however, would mean modifying the Catalan sports law, which should postpone the elections, although without a date, for a few weeks. In a statement, the Catalan government explained that "the club has asked the Generalitat to assess the possibility of modifying the current sports legislation to enable postal voting on the new election date, a request that the government has undertaken to study". Marc Duch, from Font's candidacy, has defended that the management board would have had to ask for legal protection to vote by mail weeks ago, and not now, to guarantee voting on the 24th.

This afternoon the company in charge of managing the elections will meet with the three candidates -Joan Laporta, Victor Font and Toni Freixa- to discuss the matter. Besides the postponement and the new date of the elections, other topics discussed will be those of the economic situation of the club and possible signings in the winter market such as that of Manchester City player Éric García. If the candidates agree and Barça finds the way to perform the transfer, Koeman could receive a reinforcement in the coming days.

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