The vote of no confidence against Josep Maria Bartomeu has been collecting signatures and unlike recent attempts by Augusti Benedito in 2017 and the one against Joan Laporta in 2008, this will come down to the wire.
The group that has been collecting the signatures, Més que una Moció, has said that 12,700 signatures of the required 16,521 needed have been collected. Meanwhile, Victor Font is saying that he has more to deliver.
This would put the count as needing around 3,000 signatures with the Thursday deadline fast approaching, days turning into hours.
Jordi Farré, another presidential candidate who was the one who originally filed the motion, has also been hard at work to collect enough signatures. Even though the two men will be in opposition to each other in the upcoming presidential election, whenever that may be, they are putting their campaigns aside for this effort.
Other candidates such as Laporta and Benedito have been quieter with their efforts to collect signatures, but Laporta did provide his own signature to the motion.
So what happens next? If the appropriate number of signatures is collected, and most importantly, approved at the team’s headquarters, then the referendum can take place that would call for a new election. That referendum goes to all socios, about 154,000 voters, and for the board to resign immediately and an election be called, two-thirds of that number must say vote for the motion to censure.
In 2017, when matches were being played at the Camp Nou and socios were descending on the football cathedral in large numbers, it was a surprise that Benedito’s vote of no confidence didn’t collect enough signatures. At the time, the socios let their voice be heard – Bartomeu’s winning the treble in 2015 and the current state of the club at that time wasn’t enough to force him out.
The 2020 vote of no confidence has already collected more signatures during a pandemic, and it is an unfortunate thought how the current global crisis has affected the will of the people. Clearly enough socios want to bring it to a referendum, unlike 2017, but the Spain’s rule to limit gatherings to 10 people or fewer has made collecting signatures a logistical nightmare.
That said, there are more than 130 boxes, in businesses, restaurants, and offices around Catalonia, where socios can sign, plus the locations that have been set up via the official website.
With the new season starting, a question riddled in skepticism should be asked – what’s the difference between now and March? Most Culers think of the club in terms of the players on the field and the sporting project, but Bartomeu and company are still in charge of major decisions of the new few months.
For starters, sponsorships never sleep, and agreement with Rakuten, the team’s primary sponsor at the moment, is soon to be up for renewal. With ousting Bartomeu positively or negatively affect that negotiation? Unfortunately fans aren’t privy to that information, but it might be an arrow in the quiver of voters if a presidential candidate could share some insight.
Therein lies the biggest challenge for the presidential candidates in the next step that we know will happen, the election. Whether it’s now or in March, transparency should be a main focus of every campaign. So far Victor Font is winning that battle and for that reason he is the early favorite to come out the victor, no pun intended. Socios could be swayed by big promises, as was the case in 2003 with Joan Laporta and David Beckham.
That presidency worked out for the better, and the club is in a similar place at the moment. Back in 2003, the club wanted to go from winning no trophies back to some trophies. Now, the club wants to go from winning some trophies to win all the trophies again. It’s unrealistically, but this is what FC Barcelona has become.
It’s not just FC Barcelona – Bayern Munich, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, PSG, Inter Milan, Manchester United – all these clubs promise the top trophies and each of these clubs may consider this season a “failure” if they don’t win the Champions League.
Trophies matter, but most importantly for Culers who will be with the club through winning or losing, FC Barcelona must get back to Més que un club. Fans of the club must be made proud of the club again. How the club treats its legends is an easy place to start, but the way the club is viewed on and off the pitch is the primary focus. Upgrading the stadium is significant, but so is upgrading the sporting project. It’s not just about one or two transfers, but getting back to a transparent plan that prioritizes bringing in star talent around players that have been raised in one of the greatest academies in the world.
The next board will already have Ansu Fati and Riqui Puig to promote the use of La Masia, so there must a sporting project that doesn’t revolve exclusively around these players, but brings in talent that enhances the squad that both La Masia has helped lay the foundation for.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Whether we are having this conversation in March or next week is all resting on the pens of a few thousand socios then a whole lot more.
Dan Hilton is an American journalist, broadcaster, and current Editor-in-Chief of BarcaBlog. Extensive work as a play-by-play broadcaster, producer behind the scenes, and quite average player in his younger years has given him a well-rounded and informative perspective on the sport. Alongside BarcaBlog founder Francesc, Dan started The Barcelona Podcast in 2017.
