More than 3,300 Barça members demand the repeal of Laporta's initiative.

BarcelonaFor the second time in Barça's history, the club's members are close to adding an item to the meeting's agenda. Businessman Víctor Font did so in 2019. with the initiative of electronic voting and the financier Marc Ciria He may have succeeded in doing so by requesting the revocation of the permission that the assembly granted in 2022 to Joan Laporta's board to sell up to 49.9% of BLM (Barça Licensing & Merchandising), Barça's merchandising division, valued at around €600 million. According to the statutes, Ciria needed the support of at least 3% of members with the right to passive suffrage. This meant around 3,300 signatures. Finally, he collected 3,316 notarized signatures after almost a month of collecting them, as he himself explained this Tuesday at the Can Déu Civic Centre in the Les Corts neighborhood of Barcelona.

"We don't know if we've made the cut because the club hasn't updated its passive census [of members who don't have the necessary seniority or who are sanctioned]. Right now, we don't know if we've made it or not," Ciria complained during the press conference, held after his team submitted the signatures at the Barcelona Supporter Support Office (OAB), where they spent an hour. He says the club representatives treated them "wonderfully." "There are 3,316 people concerned about the future of Barça, 3,316 voices that simply want to go to the assembly, raise their hands, and say that maybe it's time to sell more assets," the financier remarked. "Out of responsibility, the club should include the item on the agenda. It will be a long afternoon at the club. They haven't given us a specific timeframe to give us a response," he added. One discrepancy that may exist between Ciria's team and Barça is the validity of digital signatures. The financier has contributed around 600 in this modality.

Thus, provided that the club validates these signatures, at this Sunday's assembly, which will be held online, the ninth point on the agenda will be for the delegate members to decide whether or not to deny Laporta the permission he has had since 2022 to sell up to 49.9% of BLM, which could become a new economic lever for Barça. "Laporta's board has sold assets worth 850 million euros and has accumulated losses of 230 million during this term, and the bylaws establish joint liability for board members if the term ends with losses. Laporta's option to avoid this is BLM, and we are aware of proposals on the table. Ciria said in a recent interview in ARAOfficial Barça sources, for their part, deny that the club currently has any intention of selling BLM.

Problems at the Johan Cruyff

Ciria's team, which is on the list of potential candidates for the Barça presidential elections scheduled to take place next spring, has been collecting signatures over the past month at matches for the men's first team (both at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys and the Estadi Johan Cruyff), the women's first team, and the basketball team. "Members of the club's security forces invited us to leave the Johan Cruyff while we were collecting signatures, despite having all the permits and contracts for the people who were with us. But this is part of a management model in which the assembly is virtual and members are increasingly excluded from the club's social life," Ciria also explained in the interview.

Barça recently reported that in the 2024-2025 financial year, BLM generated €158 million, a record for the club. This is €51 million more than the previous year. The club expects this figure to rise again in its current fiscal year budget.