The Barça elections will be a head-to-head contest

Barcelona"We need the elections to be a plebiscite between the Barça of the past and the Barça of the future." Víctor Font's mantra for the past few weeks has finally become a reality: as Barça announced this Thursday, Marc Ciria obtained 2,247 valid member signatures but did not reach the threshold of 2,337. Therefore, the incumbent Joan Laporta (7,226 valid signatures) and candidate Font (4,440) will face off on March 15. This Monday, Ciria submitted 2,844 signatures at the Auditori 1899, 598 more than those validated in the final count. The signature validation process was much more unforgiving than expected: while approximately 6% of signatures are typically lost, Marc Ciria saw 21% of his signatures discarded. Joan Laporta has lost 944 signatures, 11% of those submitted, and Víctor Font, 704 (14%).

As explained by Barça's interim vice-president, Josep Cubells, during the signature count, Ciria's pre-candidacy asked the club to accept a photocopy of the required identity card. According to members of the group who spoke to ARA beforehand, they believed this requirement could violate data protection laws. Ciria's request was not accepted by the Barça electoral board. As Cubells himself explained, the counting of all the ballots was carried out in accordance with the regulations established before the ballots were given to the pre-candidates and was done in the presence of a notary. Ciria is 90 ballots short of making the cut.

Doubt about whether Ciria would ultimately make the cut has been growing in recent days. On Sunday night, just hours before he had to submit the required signatures at the club offices, the pre-candidate tried to make a move for a joint candidacy with Font. While until recently Ciria had always postponed talks until after the signature count was complete, at the last minute he wanted to discuss the possibility of running together, although he was confident he would make the cut. This move raised concerns among Font's camp, who, despite initially appearing open to a hypothetical alliance, ultimately rejected Ciria's demands. Ciria was asking for significant weight on the list and imposed vetoes on former Laporta and Bartorosella supporters, according to sources close to the negotiations who spoke to ARA.

"The majority want change"

Without knowing how many valid signatures the other pre-candidates submitted, the count of signatures against the club's management totals 6,687, to which must be added the 1,686 signatures submitted by Xavier Vilajoana, Daniel Juan, and William Maddock. Once the count was finished, Joan Laporta obtained 7,226 signatures. The opposition celebrated these results enthusiastically: "The majority wants change. I am convinced we will win," Víctor Font asserted. The candidate claimed that the first "real poll," the ballot count, showed that "change" prevailed. Laporta downplayed the decrease in signatures compared to 2021—when he submitted 10,257—saying that Barcelona fans are less mobilized than five years ago thanks to good management, and that at that time "there was a greater need for change." However, the opposition points out that this demobilization has also affected them, yet they have emerged stronger.

With the other pre-candidates having been ruled out, Víctor Font reiterated his invitation this Thursday to all those who "share the diagnosis" to join his candidacy. "The doors are more open than ever," the candidate asserted, adding: "We have to put an end to the 'good guys and bad guys' mentality at Barça. This is about the Barça of the future: it's not about Font versus Laporta." Furthermore, the leader of Nosotros explained that the large number of invalid signatures across all pre-candidacies is due to the "archaic system" of the collection process. Specifically, his candidacy explained that they encountered many members who, lacking a physical membership card, did not provide their membership number correctly. "During these weeks we've encountered many members who didn't even have the app installed," explained Carles Ordiales, a member of the Nosotros group. The last time a pre-candidacy was eliminated after the vote count was in 2015. In those elections, which Josep Maria Bartomeu ultimately won, the Seguimiento FCB group—which has joined the Nosotros candidacy in this election—submitted 2,780 signatures and 2,534 ballots. However, the pre-candidacy didn't pass the count and fell 16 signatures short of the threshold. Furthermore, one has to go back to 2000 to find a head-to-head match between presidential candidates. On that occasion, Joan Gaspart and Lluís Bassat faced off, with Gaspart ultimately winning with 54.80% of the vote. Since then, the remaining elections (2003, 2010, 2015, and 2021) have had more than three candidates.