March 8 – Joan Laporta was elected Barcelona president by a landslide on Sunday, taking charge of the club for a second spell but this time inheriting a financial crisis and the possible departure of Lionel Messi at the end of the season.
Laporta was last president at Barca between 2003 and 2010 and oversaw a golden era during which the club won four La Liga titles and two Champions Leagues during his seven-year stint.
This time he will have a very different challenge after holding off competition from early favourite Victor Font and Toni Freixa, the other two candidates, to win the election. Laporta won 30,184 votes among Barca members, Font 16,679 and Freixa 4,769.
Already 4-1 down from the first leg of their last-16 Champions League tie against Paris St Germain, Barca’s participation in Europe’s top club competition is hanging by a thread but longer-term Laporta’s task will be deal with crippling debts exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
He has insisted he will do everything possible to keep Messi at Camp Nou, hoping to draw on their relationship during his previous time in charge.
“Seeing Leo, the best player in the world, come to vote with his son is for me a sign of what we have said all along,” Laporta said in victory. “Leo loves Barca and knows that we are a big family. Hopefully that can help us encourage him to stay.”
Laporta will also have to make decisions on the futures of a number of other Barca stalwarts who have reached their sell-by dates while a change of regime seems likely to leave head coach Ronald Koeman’s position uncertain.
“I am not worried because I have a contract and when we know who is going to be the president of course we will talk and I want him to show me his way,” Koeman insisted 48 hours before the ballot.
Barca’s last president Josep Maria Bartomeu was forced to resign in October just before the club’s members took a vote of no confidence against him. Such as been his fall from grace that he spent the night in prison last Monday after being arrested as part of a police investigation into alleged corruption.
As tough asks go, that of his successor is right up there as Laporta attempts to heal the rifts – one between members and board, the other between directors and players – as well as handle the eye-watering debts that have rocked the club’s stability.
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