After two frantic weeks searching high and low for signatures, the pre-candidates for the Barça presidency are scheduled to meet this afternoon at Camp Nou to submit their supporting endorsements. They need 2,337 valid endorsements to officially become candidates. Polls, surveys, and general sentiment suggest that Joan Laporta, who is running for re-election, will by far submit the most. The question is how many endorsements his opponents will submit, starting with Víctor Font, who should be second in this ranking, followed by... Marco Ciria and Xavier Vilajoana, who are working until the last minute to try to make the cut. The other two pre-candidates, Daniel Juan and William Maddock, are expected to play only a symbolic role.

If Joan Laporta and Marc Ciria were to step out onto the balconies of their offices on Barcelona's Diagonal Avenue, they could greet each other and even be close enough to converse despite the background noise of the bustling city life. The Barça president's law firm, Laporta & Arbós, is located at 469 Diagonal Avenue, and Ciria, one of the most active members of the opposition and a potential candidate in next spring's electionsThe headquarters of Diagonal Asset Management, a company specializing in financial asset management, is located at 467 Diagonal Avenue. Both are a two-minute walk from Plaça Francesc Macià, the epicenter for years of breakfasts, coffees, and lunches centered around Barça.

"The opposition sometimes treats Jan like the PP treats the PSOE," complains a person close to Laporta. "He is now calmer than a few weeks ago. The assembly calmed him down and the team's performance with Hansi Flick, a signing of his, has made him feel even better," he adds with satisfaction. Laporta and his entourage are proud of the tension experienced during the closing of the numbers and the pressure of critical voices between the end of September and the beginning of October. They have several compelling reasons: the delegates approved the accounts by a majority, the Barça men's team has had a string of great joys on the pitch and The club shined again at the Ballon d'Or gala with Aitana Bonmatí at the helm while Real Madrid lost its reputation worldwide. All of this has created such powerful positive emotions among the asshole that right now no red number is capable of lowering. ~BK_LINE_BREAK~ Given this reality, even people in the environment who are critical of Laporta's personalistic way of managing the club admit to ARA that, "despite the fact that when it comes to running Barça he doesn't follow any of the rules set out by business schools, he has an instinct that allows him to land on his feet regularly." That instinct is what led him to choose Hansi Flick over other coaches supposedly more faithful to the Barça style that were recommended to him from inside and outside the club. "It's a success of his, we have to give him credit for that," says the same source. That's why he considers it a shame that "this instinct of Laporta, his ability to inspire the fans and his enormous knowledge of Barça are not accompanied by a proper general manager because it would be an unstoppable duo." ~BK_LINE_BREAK~ "Our objective is not to affect the day-to-day running of the club, we defend the rights of the members," Joan Camprubí, the face of the Som un Clam movement, responded to the ARA when asked what media consequences the fact that on the playing field there are for the voices critical of Laporta's management Barça is putting on one display after another. "We must be with the team and be excited, but that does not cover everything else, that will not stop us from giving our vision of the club. For example, the closing of the numbers had in the assembly more votes against than ever before or that a former treasurer of Laporta [Xavier Sala-i-Martín] voted and spoke during the assembly from the Office of Attention to Barcelonistas (OAB)", he explains. "Comments such as 'they are not here nor are they expected' that Laporta made referring to those of us who are critical of his management denote the way he has of running the club", he adds.