Elections in the Barcelona club: Joan Laporta swept and will be the new president

03/07/2021 18:36

• Clarín.com

• sports

Updated 03/07/2021 18:49

In what was one of the most important elections of FC Barcelona in recent decades

, Joan Laporta obtained a devastating advantage

to occupy the seat that

Joseph Bartomeu

had until very recently

, and that he himself already knows: he presided in the period 2003- 2010.

With

80% of the votes counted

, Laporta obtained

57.91%

, Antoni Freixa 9.92% and Víctor Font 30.97%.

The voting centers had closed at 20 (17 in Argentina) and the results were anticipated by a poll by Catalan television TV3.

There was absolute cordiality between the three candidates, and both losers already congratulated Joan Laporta, who thanked them for the gesture.

"I want to congratulate Laporta for this victory, which does not admit discussion. We must now support our President. High participation legitimizes him," declared Freixa.

Fair play among the 3⃣ candidates pic.twitter.com/jQTTYwmrPc

- FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) March 7, 2021

Club members marched for twelve hours to cast their vote.

Among them was the captain and emblem, the Argentine Lionel Messi, who went to vote for the first time in a Barça election, accompanied by his son Thiago, in a moment as unprecedented as it was tender: there are almost no records of Leo exercising his civic right, or in this case as a partner.

The Argentine cast his vote and took several photos with fans who kept shouting "Messi stay."

The last data of the voters in the elections that Barcelona made official on its website was that there were 35,013 people present (31.74% of the census).

Voters had to choose between former president Joan Laporta (2003-2010), the great favorite according to the Catalan press, and Toni Freixa or Víctor Font.

Lionel Messi with his son Thiago at the Camp Nou, voting in the Barcelona elections.

Photo FC Barcelona.

"They are the most important elections in the history of Barça", Laporta had affirmed after casting his vote at the Camp Nou stadium, while for Font it is "the most important elections in the history of the club."

Freixa, for his part, encouraged voting because "the more participation, the more legitimacy the elected president and board of directors will have."

In addition to the Camp Nou, the election to the Barça presidency also featured for the first time five other voting centers spread across Catalonia and neighboring Andorra.

The vote was carried out in the midst of large sanitary measures due to the coronavirus pandemic, with physical distancing, a mandatory mask and hydroalcoholic gel.

Source: agencies.

Look also

An exit point ensures that Joan Laporta sweeps the Barcelona elections

Lionel Messi, in fan mode: after voting in the Barcelona elections a photo was taken in the Camp Nou tribune