FCBARCELONA.CAT

29.01.2010 20:30

Presidential elections set for June 13th

www.fcbarcelona.cat

President Joan Laporta announced this Friday that the elections for Club President will be held on June 13th. The decision was taken unanimously by the board in their meeting in Vic and was also agreed to by Guardiola and Begiristain.

“We’re planning to hold the elections on June 13th. This will be confirmed when elections are called at the end of April” according to Sr Laporta, who announced the decision after the board meeting held in Vic on Friday.

Sporting interests paramount

Sr Laporta explained that the reasons for choosing the date were: “purely sporting – this means that the electoral process will not interfere with the sporting interests of the club. We want to be with the team – sport is the basis of the club”. The final game in which Barca could be involved in is the final of the Champions League, to be held on May 22nd.

Agreement with Guardiola and Txiki

As well as the board’s unanimous vote on the date, the President also explained that Josep Guardiola and Txiki Begiristain had also been consulted: “before anything was decided definitively, we talked with Pep and Txiki about what the board felt and they weighed up the pros and cons and told us the decision was fine with them”.

Call for responsibility

“We’ve made this announcement now, even though there are still five months to go, because there was a concern in the air and also because some members wanted to discuss the issue now”. In order to ensure a smooth electoral process and avoid any conflict between the day to day running of the club and the election campaign, Laporta appealed to “all the candidates’ sense of responsibility”.

Board members

According to the club statutes, if any member of the board wishes to be a candidate for President, they have to resign before announcing their candidature officially. In the case of Alfons Godall and Jaume Ferrer, who have already expressed an interest in standing, Laporta explained: “if they wish to continue during the months leading up to the campaign, there is no problem. The statutes oblige them to resign only once elections have officially been called”, something which will not happen until May.