Validated vote of no confidence against Bartomeu, who plans to resign

The table for the vote of no confidence against the board of directors of FC Barcelona chaired by Josep Maria Bartomeu has already validated more than the 16,521 signatures necessary to call a social referendum and decide on the continuity of the current Barça council elected by absolute majority in 2015. In the absence From the final scrutiny of the day, the ballots that have passed the cut in the morning of this Wednesday are around 16,700 out of a total of 20,687 presented.

The validation process will continue and surely conclude this Thursday, although it has time to close until Friday, according to the Barça statutes.

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The count has been very scrupulous because some managers suspected that many of the partners' signatures were irregular and even doubted that the necessary figure would be reached in the end, an attitude that surprised the promoters of the platform

, integrated by eight Barcelona groups and three candidates for the 2021 elections: Jordi Farré, Lluís Fernández Alà and Víctor Font.

The table must now call the vote within 10 to 20 business days from the 9th initially. The club will inform after the conditions of the referendum, which will be supervised by the Generalitat.

Bartomeu is between a rock and a hard place because he hesitates between submitting to the vote and assuming its result, which requires that at least two-thirds of the partners vote against him in order for the vote of no-confidence to succeed, or submitting his resignation and avoiding the possibility of becoming the first president in the history of Barça to leave office due to a motion already passed by Josep Lluís Núñez in 1998 and Joan Laporta in 2008. The disapproval of Núñez, promoted by

obtained 5,664 signatures and the 35.5% of the votes;

that of Laporta, 9,145 signatures and 60.6% of guarantees (the necessary percentage was 66.6%).

The calendar announced by the board of directors provided for the holding of the assembly of delegates for October 27, and therefore the close of last year and the approval of the next one, and the call for elections on March 20 and 21, although the incoming board he would not take office until July 1.

Bartomeu, who is finishing his term, is considering leaving office without waiting for the vote of no confidence, a possibility that will be discussed at the next meeting, scheduled for next Monday or Tuesday.

Some managers are in favor of resigning without further delay after the 2020 transfer market has closed.

The resignation of the council would leave the command of the club in a manager chaired by Carles Busquets, president of the Economic Commission, who would call the elections within a period of between 40 and 90 days.

The process, in any case, both the celebration of the vote of no confidence and the convocation of the assembly and the elections, is conditioned by the pandemic and must be supervised by the Generalitat.

The decree law approved on September 10 offers different interpretations in this regard and may cause discrepancies between the parties despite the fact that it does not initially prevent face-to-face voting for covid-19.

The pressure on Bartomeu is maximum due to the social, sporting and economic crisis that Barça is experiencing.

The hole in the club has been estimated at 97 million and the debt amounts to 820 million;

footballers have been sold and practically given away given the need to reduce the salary mass of the workforce, estimated at 636 million last season;

workers and athletes have received a notification informing them of the need to lower wages;

and the judge keeps

open

, the case of monitoring of social networks that caused the resignation of six executives and the economic leadership led by Emili Rousaud.

The departure of the current board and therefore its resignation to exhaust the mandate and, by extension, the advancement of the elections would force the incoming board to close the fiscal year already in progress and initiated by the Bartomeu council.

And in the event that the vote of no-confidence is held, the participation of 10% of the social mass will be necessary for it to be valid in a vote that must be proposed by the club to the Generalitat - the priority is that it has the maximum decentralization and the maximum duration to avoid agglomerations in accordance with health recommendations due to covid-19—.

The Barça club, for the moment, has already expressed its discomfort with the performance of Josep Maria Vallbona, representative of the Catalan Football Federation and president of the table of the vote of no confidence, for the procedure for the validation of the signatures and the treatment given to the Barça workers.