Barça members respond to Laporta's plea

Barcelona"Dear member, I am pleased to inform you that you have been designated as a delegate of FC Barcelona". This is how the email that a few thousand members received at the beginning of July begins. A few weeks later, they received a physical card in their home mailbox that corroborated their status, with a mandate until 2028, when they will be renewed again by lottery. This September 19, many made their debut in an assembly key to the future of the club: the delegates approved an increase of 300 million in the Camp Nou remodeling project.

The assembly was telematic, like all those that have been held since 2021. Only the board and the senators –the first 1,000 members– could follow it in person from the club's 1899 Auditorium. The rest, from home. It is more comfortable, but also lonelier. Without the canapés of the lunch break, the comments of complicity with the person sitting next to you, or the buzz when some hot point on the agenda is touched upon. Everything, conditioned to the production images and an almost non-existent ambient sound, except when one of the speakers had their microphone open.

It is a key assembly. Transcendent. But very placid. The additional debt, the result of the budget deviation for the Camp Nou, does not scare the delegates who seem little worried about the debt and more bothered about whether their season tickets will be raised. Before the formal meeting, Barça organizes a couple of information sessions that serve to resolve doubts for the social base but, above all, to test the atmosphere and get ahead of possible conflicts. For example, regarding the total cost that the stadium works will have, counting the loan money plus the interest, which forces the economic vice president, Ferran Olivé, to have a surgical discourse when giving explanations on the day of the voting. Furthermore, since some questions are sent beforehand through a form, the board can anticipate and prepare the answers.

There are 4,597 delegates in total, although less than a thousand participate in the assembly. At noon, at the time of maximum attendance, there are 956, and the figure is expected to go down throughout the afternoon, especially after lunch. Where are the remaining 3,500? It is not that Barça has spared efforts so that there would be the maximum possible participation. In the email where they were notified of their delegate status, they were also offered the possibility of resigning to give the option to another member. Over the last fifteen days, the club has sent numerous notifications to encourage them to participate, confirm attendance, or send documentation to review the accounts that must be approved. Despite this, just over 20% make an appearance.

Laporta asks for "courage" and sends a dart at the aid that Real Madrid receives

President Joan Laporta opens fire with an opening speech in which, besides praising Barça's economic and sporting recovery, he describes the expansion of the Espai Barça credit as an "exciting challenge" that will serve to "compete with corporations or state-owned clubs whose land is rezoned when they face difficulties." A direct reference to Real Madrid that encourages members, from whom he asks for "courage." Olivé takes the baton, providing economic explanations for both the closing of the 2025/26 season accounts and the 26/27 budgets, and Oriol Amat, as president of the blaugrana economic commission, issues his positive report on the accounts although he warns that the financial safety margin is "narrow".

The explanations sound convincing and the votes corroborate it. The closing of accounts, with more than 1,000 million euros in revenue but a negative net result (-18), is approved with 609 favorable votes and 32 against; while the budget, which forecasts a new record in revenue, obtains 583 votes in favor and 43 negative votes.

The process is agile and is recalled with an informative video before each scrutiny. The famous blue and red cards have already passed into history and even the senators who are in the Auditorium have a remote control. From home, once accredited for the virtual room, one can request a turn to ask questions, although there are few who raise their hand. Finally, one must wait for the secretary to give the order to open the voting period. Afterwards, click on the voting room, where there are five minutes to choose the desired option. The count, of course, is practically immediate.

Three hours after starting, the key point arrives: that of financing. It is 300 million to finish the works and 210 in bond issuance to deal with the interest while the stadium is not yet at its maximum capacity, in a journey through the desert that will last at least until January 2028. Here there are some complaints about the cost overrun of the work, the percentage of interest, or the doubt of whether more extensions will be needed. Olivé, who was already expecting them, justified the cost overrun with external factors, argued the interest with the increase in the price of money, and guaranteed that no more financing will be needed. With 562 votes in favor and only 45 against, the assembly – which at this point required a reinforced majority of 2/3 – authorized the financing extension, and with 486 votes in favor and 55 against, it also validated the bond issuance. Laporta and his team breathe a sigh of relief.

Doubts regarding Ohana and Babylon

After lunch, the assembly continued with a sports report presented by Deco, the club's technical secretary, who announced the renewals—already on track, pending signature—of Raphinha, Bernal, and Espart. A positive outlook before addressing another thorny issue, the ratification of the sponsorship agreements with Ohana and Babylon Park. The social mass expressed its reservations and the vote was tight, but even so, the agreements went ahead with 308 votes in favor and 103 against, and 252 in favor and 158 against, respectively.