Joan Laporta has been elected the new president of F.C Barcelona after emerging victorious ahead of rival candidates Victor Font and Toni Freixa. The club disclosed the result of the election on Sunday night, with Laporta who was at the helm between 2003 and 2010 winning with 30,184 votes and Font coming in second and Freixa third with 16,679 and 4,769 votes, respectively.
Joan Laporta I Estruch (Barcelona, June 29, 1963) was the only candidate who had previously been president of FC Barcelona, between 2003 and 2010, and now 11 years after leaving the job, he will once again lead the Club. Joan Laporta was the clear favourite ahead of Víctor Font and Antoni Freixa.
It is the fourth time that a president has taken charge at the Club in different mandates following the precedents set by Joan Gamper (1908, 1910, 1917, 1921 and 1924), Gaspar Rosés I Arús (1917, 1920, 1930) and Enric Piñeyro I Queralt (1940, 1942).
The challenge for the new Laporta mandate is substantial with the need to right the Club’s financial situation which has been hit badly by the coronavirus pandemic, to resolve Leo Messi’s future, the football first team’s fortunes after the disappointment of the last two seasons; the development of the Espai Barça project, a vital one for the future of the Club and the preservation of La Masia as the basis for the team’s style of play and philosophy from the youth teams to the first team.
