During a meeting on Friday, the three presidential candidates and president Tusquets agreed to hold the election on March 7th.
On Friday, Barcelona officially postponed the upcoming election, originally scheduled for the January 24th. At 7PM on the same day, the three candidates Font, Laporta and Freixa, met with interim president Carles Tusquets at the Camp Nou offices. For almost two hours, the quartet discussed election dates. At the end, the conclusion was to hold it at the beginning of March. The hope is that covid restrictions will be lifted, so that all Barcelona members can be guaranteed the right to vote in the election. Alternatively, if restrictions aren’t lifted, they hope to allow members to vote via mail.
According to Radio Catalunya, President Tusquets stated that 57% of members would not be able to vote with the current restrictions.
At the end of the meeting, Font and Laporta spoke to journalists outside the office entrance:
Victor Font: “First of all, I would like to express the friendly atmosphere in which the meeting was held. There is full willingness from the candidates and the board to ensure that as many as possible are able to vote in the election. We aim to expand the amount of voting points. Also, in order to implement the option to vote by mail, it is important to have the support of the government because the Sports Law needs to be amended. We hope the pandemic has improved (by March). At the sporting level, we have not agreed on anything because we have been told that there is no money or room to do much.”
Joan Laporta: February 28 was also a considered election date, but we chose March 7 because the situation of the pandemic is expected to be a little better then. The government also need time to be able to carry out the legal process.”
In an online meeting with Catalan authorities on Friday morning, Barça emphasised that it would be impossible to hold the elections in January due to the Covid-19 restrictions enforced by the government. Also, given the state of the pandemic, the government doesn’t want to give the club any special treatment with regards to restrictions.
Eric Garcia will have to wait
At Friday’s meeting, Tusquets and the three presidential candidates agreed that signing the Manchester City center back in January is not feasible. Paying a transfer fee is ruled out, and the club will sign him for free this summer.
Laporta said this after Friday’s meeting:
“We would have to pay money (for Eric Garcia). The deal would include some imaginative formulas that the club wouldn’t be able to afford. We agreed that it was better to sign the player for free in June.”
Radio Catalunya reported that the total cost of the Garcia deal would be 8 million euros. They claim Font was in favour of negotiating with Manchester City to decrease the fee. Laporta and Freixa thought it would be more logical to sign him for free in the summer. Together, they decided that the best option was for him to arrive in the summer.
