FC Barcelona President calls early elections for end of season

Josep Maria Bartomeu, President of FC Barcelona, held a press conference on Wednesday to announce early elections to be held at the end of the current season. Bartomeu also confirmed that he will run. “We believe that calling elections is the best option to lower the tension that is currently present at the club”, he stated. Last week’s confirmation of FIFA’s ban on FC Barcelona by the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) was the last ingredient in a storm that has raged for months. FIFA will prevent the Catalan club from signing any new player until Christmas 2015 as a sanction for signing underage players from foreign countries. Following the CAS’ definitive verdict, Barça’s Football Director, Andoni Zubizarreta, was fired earlier this week.

Barça's President, Josep Maria Bartomeu, in a recent picture (by FC Barcelona)
Barça's President, Josep Maria Bartomeu, in a recent picture (by FC Barcelona) / ACN

ACN

January 7, 2015 09:06 PM

Barcelona (ACN).- Josep Maria Bartomeu, President of FC Barcelona, held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon to announce early elections to be held at the end of the current season. Bartomeu also confirmed that he will run. “We believe that calling elections is the best option to lower the tension that is currently present at the club”, he stated. Last week’s confirmation of FIFA’s ban on FC Barcelona by the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) was the last ingredient in a storm that has raged for months. FIFA will prevent the Catalan club from signing any new players until Christmas 2015 as a sanction for signing underage players from foreign countries. Paradoxically, in the past few years, FIFA has on many occasions praised FC Barcelona’s football academy and given awards to some of its biggest talents, such as Lionel Messi. Following the CAS’ definitive verdict, Barça’s Football Director, Andoni Zubizarreta, was fired earlier this week. His ‘number 2’, legendary defender Carles Puyol, announced his resignation in solidarity.


The FIFA ban comes on top of the crisis linked to Neymar’s signing for the club, which forced the previous President, Sandro Rosell, to resign and hand power to Bartomeu in January 2014. The Spanish tax authorities have been arguing that some contract items were not properly declared and therefore some taxes are missing. The case is still being investigated, but Rosell resigned in order not to further involve FC Barcelona. 

Since then, many club members have been demanding early elections, but Bartomeu’s plan was to hold office until June 2016. However, the poor results of the first team during the last few weeks and the CAS’ definitive decision regarding FIFA’s ban have triggered early elections, but Bartomeu also highlighted that some people “are trying to destabilise the club” in order to take control of the Board.