Thursday 3 September 2009

Who will be the next president of FC Barcelona?

In May or June next year, Barcelona's club members will appoint a new president. After two terms, current president Joan Laporta cannot run again. Who are the candidates to succeed him?


1. The continuity candidate
The current Barcelona board wants to put forward one candidate who should continue the current project. In recent weeks and months, this seemed to have become a struggle between marketing vice-president Jaume Ferrer and recently appointed board member Xavier Sala i Martín.

While Sala, a professor of economics at Columbia University in New York, would have the support of president Laporta, Ferrer would be backed by the majority of the board members. First vice-president Alfons Godall, who first had said that he would not run, has put himself back on the map in two interviews earlier this week and could become the consensus candidate. A decision is expected to be made in December or January.

2. Sandro Rosell (former sports vice-president, board member 2003-2005)
(picture)
Rosell is until this moment the only one who has publicly announced - in the summer of 2008 - that he will run for president. He has started to prepare for the elections shortly after he resigned as vice-president in 2005.

Rosell has long been seen as the favourite to become the next president although this could have changed because of last season's sporting succeses of the team. Rosell is seen as the architect of the team around Brazilian player Ronaldinho that won two league titles and one Champions League under coach Frank Rijkaard.

3. Ferran Soriano (former economic vice-president, board member 2003-2008)
Until he stepped down together with several other board members last summer, Soriano was considered to be the most likely "board candidate" for the elections. Soriano is seen as the architect of the current healthier financial situation of the club, compared to the situation when Laporta took office back in 2003. Because of his new job as chairman of airline company Spanair it has become uncertain if Soriano will run.

4. The Others
Several other names of people from the "entorn", the club's entourage, are rumoured to try to set up a candidature. Former presidental candidates like Jordi Majó, Josep Maria Minguella or Jaume Llauradó could again make an attempt, although none of them are expected to have a serious chance and they might try to link up with one of the main candidates trying to get a place in the board.

(vaguely based on an article in Catalan sports paper Sport)

23 comments:

Conako said...

There is no one good as Joan laporta . We love him we want him. Stupid rules!

Anonymous said...

Sandro Rosell said back in 2006 that if he was the president he would have sold Ronaldinho for 60 or 80 M€ that Milan offered.

Anonymous said...

i dont trust rosell

i either want soriano or ferrer

brazo said...

laporta should take a new passport and call himself Loan Japorta or something like that and well take him ;D

hieifcb said...

hey what happened to PEP?
he didnt attend to the UEFA TOP Coaches meeting...
i just saw tht on UEFA.com

he is keeping our secrets safe =D

Anonymous said...

Pep, doesn't the original article say that Xavier Sala i Martín won't be a candidate?
I'm not sure, maybe I just misunderstood something.

Feech said...

The formula is very simple: if we will win the Liga or the CL then Laporta's board will be elected. (It doesn't matter who will lead them, Ferrer or Godall.)
If we will win only the Copa del Rey or we won't win anything then Rosell will be the president.

hieifcb said...

loook what i got from someone on Faceboook (Aditya =P).

http://www.barcelonafootballblog.com/238/el-banquillo-1/

MUST READ for a Barca fan =D
Pep please post this.. thx

Feech said...

@hieifcb: He chose to train the rest of the squad instead to prepare for Getafe and Inter.
He put the team before himself.

The other coach who didn't attend was Mourinho.

semko said...

I have one question?..that means that Laporta can not be our president anymore,i don't mean next year,bur in general forever?

fcbee said...

I think so, yes. You have two terms and then it's over, even if there's a pause. But like I've said before: Laporta himself is not at all interested anymore in leading the club, he now wants to use the fame he gained as president in business or politics.

skanjos said...

go sandro rosell!!!most people dont remember him but he made the best transfer for the team ever,ronaldinho/eto/deco. you have to give him credit.

he resigned to get ready for presidency.he is the best choice for president i think,changing president doesnt mean that our style will change,also the team we have now is also where it is cause this guy helped too,laporta has done great bringing 2 cl,lets see if the next one can top him.ehhhm laporta has 3cl i have to count this years too :)

Anonymous said...

Sandro Rosell is a Barcelona version of Florentino Perez. He is going to make a team by himself and not care about the coach's opinion. I dont see Guardiola working under this guy.

He already tried to run all the transfers by himself but Laporta was against and backed Txiki Begiristain. Thats why Rosell left, he was angry that he wasnt allowed to do also the technical secretary's job.

And you can expect many Brazilians (which have mostly a very bad attitude) at Barca if Rosell will be elected. He was working for Nike company and has many contacts in Brazil. He got Ronaldinho, Deco, Edmilson, Sylvinho...but he wanted also Gilberto Silva and Edu.

If you all love that Barca has many home players in team now, with Rosell it will change and we are going to be the Galacticos 3 with many many Brazilians. Just for business...

yuti said...

He left because Laporta took all the credit for his work. And be happy he brought Ronaldinho. We don't want tot hink about where this club would now have been without Ronaldinho.

And you can be pretty sure Guardiola likes Rosell better than Laporta...

Anonymous said...

wrong yuti.
laporta, guardiola = pro cruijff
rosell = anti-crujff
which pretty much means anti many positive barcelona attributes

Fenderek said...

If this guy (Rosell) is about spending money rather than what we were doing for the last year- I don't want him anywhere near this team... The LAST thing we need is to become Real 2.
We are Barca, we are different- and we should be proud of it. It's the others (Real as well...) who should look up to us, not the other way round...

HeyRube said...

This is why Pep isn't renewing contract wise, I'm pretty sure if rosell is elected Pep will instantly resign.

Unknown said...

I cerainly wont vote for Rossell, yes he bought ronaldinho but after he resigned he still tried to distabilise our club, now the question is if he succeeded then would we have achieved what we achieved in 2006 and would we have created history like we did last season...the answer is a huge NO!. I would have voted him but not after he put himself first before our club by trying to cause havoc. Jaume Ferrer for me or Sala Martin, and no interference with transfers, team matters and selections.

Visca El Barca!!

Unknown said...

"We don't want tot hink about where this club would now have been without Ronaldinho. "

Yuti...

There's no doubt that Ronnie was great and one of our icons but Barca has existed and aced long before Ronnie was even born! and will continue on top for many many years to come without him. This club is destined for greatness regardless of who plays in it ...

Mes que un club... That's right

Anonymous said...

Cruyff for President

Unknown said...

Just look at Sandro's mug. If that isn't "VILLAIN" I don't know what that is.

G* said...

I'm a long time soci and although I always was anti-Núñez and simpathised a lot with Laporta's "Blue Elephant" group, I did't vote for him when he won the presidency because he used some dirty tactics during the election process to discredit Bassat's candicacy. I voted for Bassat, especially because he had Pep as manager.

That being said, I think Laporta's presidency has been by far the best in Barça's History.

About Rossell: I don't trust this guy at all. I'm also a psychologist and when Laporta and Rossell parted there was a very bitter debate in the catalan media. When I saw both of them on TV explaining their side on the affair day in and day out, the non-verbals by Rossell were very telling: he showed all the signs of an egomaniac narcissist and, above all, he was not telling the truth...

yuti said...

"laporta, guardiola = pro cruijff
rosell = anti-crujff"


That's too simple. Why was Rosell then in the Laporta candidature which was backed by Cruyff? And why was Guardiola in the other candidature, opposed to Laporta and not backed by Cruyff?

Guardiola doesn't like Laporta: fact! You never see them together, Guardiola avoids him like he has some terrible disease.

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