Laporta marks the step in the Barça

The signatures confirmed the feelings of the pre-campaign and Joan Laporta now lacks the votes of Sunday 24 to return to the presidency of FC Barcelona.

The triumph of the former Barça president in the so-called primaries was intimidating, and to a certain extent ruthless if one takes into account his conciliatory and integrative speech in recent days, after collecting 10,272 endorsements, a figure much higher than the one he obtained in 2015 (4,272 ) and even in 2003 (5,725), when he won the elections, below Sandro Rosell's record in 2010 (12,635).

Winner against the forecast in 2003, the year in which Lluís Bassat surpassed him in signatures (9,894), Laporta now faces the challenge of responding to the condition of great favorite against Víctor Font (4,713 guarantees), Toni Freixa (2,822) and Emili Rousaud (2,510 ).

The four aspire to be proclaimed candidates before next Friday, after exceeding the cut set of 2,257 guarantees, 50% of the number of Barcelona delegates.

The only one that runs a certain risk of being

cut off

in the authentication process is Rousaud because its margin is small and the average of nulls is usually around 10%.

The counting and homologation of the signatures to avoid irregularities has been complicated after a candidate such as Jordi Farré denounced that there have been sale and purchase situations and because not all the candidates who have been left out have delivered the guarantees: Agustí Benedito, One of the historical aspirants, founder of Elefant Blau, a platform contrary to former president Josep Lluís Núñez, did not show up for the meeting with the club after announcing that he did not have the necessary signatures due to the difficulties generated by the covid-19.

Neither did it exceed the minimum, although Xavier Vilajoana (1,968) provided the guarantees.

Pere Riera, Lluís Fernández Alá (1,172) and Jordi Farré (2,082) destroyed their ballots in the same headquarters without being counted or validated by those responsible for Barça.

Farré was the promoter of the vote of no-confidence which, without being voted, caused the resignation of President Josep Maria Bartomeu in October.

Although he was one of the 19,380 partners who signed, Laporta did not explicitly join Farré's initiative.

Validation and suspension

The former president has been very meticulous in his actions since he decided to run again for the Barça presidency.

He has used the tactic of not making mistakes and weaving complicities rather than winning enemies, without ceasing to mark the profile and underline that the rival is Real Madrid, as was made explicit with the Bernabéu banner.

Unlike 2003, when he needed to come back, Laporta defends today a very favorable score and does not want to take unnecessary risks, confident in his charisma and the presidential character that Barça elections usually have.

"They ask me to fix Barça, which only I can do," Laporta said.

"Although we are going with winning morale due to spectacular results, we cannot trust ourselves or lower our guard because only the first part is over," he added and later warned that he saw no reason to postpone the vote on 24.

The representatives of the Procicat (Pla Territorial de Protecció Civil de Catalunya) and Barça, also very aware of the regional elections scheduled for February 14, will meet on Friday to analyze the date and conditions of the Barça elections affected by the covid -19.

The possibility that the current municipal confinement is extended beyond the 17th could cause the postponement or even the suspension of the elections due to the impossibility of all the summoned partners being able to mobilize and participate in the vote on a day when the team plays in Elche.

It must be taken into account that voting by mail or electronic is not allowed and, in addition, that the Generalitat did not want to vary the date set for the vote of no confidence, a decision that caused the departure of Bartomeu.

Despite the fact that there was no coincidence between the candidates on the need for a postponement, there are different sectors of Barcelona that demand an executive president to make decisions that help combat the club's economic crisis and improve the sports situation in the sports market. winter as requested by Ronald Koeman.

The current panorama clearly favors Laporta due to the number of signatures —that is more than the total of the other applicants together, 10,045— and also of candidates to the same extent that it hurts Font.

The former president, who has a very loyal electorate that moves around 10,000 endorsements obtained, it suits him to atomize the vote, while Font was interested in a face-to-face meeting to bring together the anti-Laporta.

A curious situation of rivalry because both share political ideology - they declare themselves independent - and soccer for being followers of Johan Cruyff and admirers of Pep Guardiola.

The presence of Freixa and Rou? Saud open a third way that seemed ruled out since the resignations of Jordi Roche and Juan Rosell.

It is also not convenient for both of them to divide the apparently continuous vote despite the fact that they marked distances in a specific way with Sandro Rosell and Bartomeu.

Freixa was against the vote of no confidence and Rousaud resigned because of

Barçagate

.

The situation does not rule out possible alliances, if Rousaud passes the validation, after verifying that the rival to beat is Laporta. "We are very satisfied with the firms because we started from scratch, we are not known and we know that 50,000 members vote," argued Font, aware that in the absence of Laporta's ascendant, he has a very complete project and an organization chart full of professionals who sports level leads Xavi. Font is interested in shaking up the campaign while Laporta still did not show the content of his proposal because he has reached him with his leadership to mark the step while waiting to know if the elections will be a two or a three against one and if they will be held on the 24th .