Friday, November 6, 2009

Board reshuffle coming up next week

Catalan radio station Catalunya Ràdio claims that Barcelona president Joan Laporta is preparing several changes in the board of the directors of FC Barcelona.

The decision has reportedly been made and would be officially announced next Friday after a board meeting in the French city of Perpinyà. Catalan sports papers El Mundo Deportivo and Sport have confirmed the news.

Ahead of next year's elections, Laporta would mainly want to give more responsibilities to first vice-president Alfons Godall and to Xavier Sala i Martín, directors close to the president. Vice-presidents Jaume Ferrer
(picture, on the right) and Joan Franquesa would lose power (read more here).

Ferrer would lose "marketing" and "media" to vice-president Joan Boix and would only keep the responsibility on the minor professional sections of the club (not the football and basketball sections). Franquesa would lose "assets administration" to Boix and "institutional matters" to Godall and would become responsible for the club's foundation. Sala i Martín is believed to replace Boix as treasurer.

Speaking at a press conference after today's 'Comisión Delegada', a meeting of the main directors and executives of the club, Barcelona chief executive Joan Oliver confirmed there was a reshuffle coming up: "The president has announced that there will be changes. Some tasks will be redistributed. The directors are now holding talks to see how we will reorganize things but as long as everything isn't finalized, we won't say anything."


Read more:
Laporta: "Sala as president would be an honour"
Barcagate (10) - The fallout
Godall: "Being president would be a dream"

10 comments:

  1. what i would give to be a fly on the wall while all these movement are happening...
    what does it all mean?

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  2. @Anonymous:


    If confirmed, it's clear Laporta wants to give more power to the directors he prefers to succeed him next year.

    - Godall and Sala, who are working on a candidacy that will be supported by Laporta, get more powers.

    - Ferrer and Franquesa clearly lose. They would still be vice-president but this would almost be an empty title since they would only have minor responsibilities.

    They could set up a candidacy that would not be supported by Laporta (or join another candidate), so he wants to give them no possibility to "score" in the coming months.

    - Boix was said to be hesitating about which side to choose but, if confirmed, this reshuffle could mean he would join the Laporta-Godall-Sala team.


    And I guess a fly wouldn't want to be around if they're discussing all this. With the emotions heating up, you'd most probably end up being smashed against the wall.

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  3. I wouldn't be surprised if certain board members would resign before the end of next week.

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  4. thanks for all the info Pep.
    great site!

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  5. The key issue might be the bank guarantee, chris809. We'll have a post on that issue later, but basically: if Ferrer wants to run for president, he won't need (most probably, some legal interpretation to do there) to put down a guarantee because he would be member of a board that has done well financially.

    So it's believed that if he will run, he will bear with the situation and hold on for a few more months.

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  6. You're welcome, Anonymous! Thank you for visiting, reading and commenting.

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  7. This explains why Ferrer didn't resign earlier.
    I think he will lose more supporters in the board as time goes by.

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  8. You mean Laporta losing supporters? Or Ferrer?

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  9. I mean Ferrer will lose some of his support in the board while Godall's candidacy will become stronger.

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  10. If it's gonna be Godall's candidacy, that is... It might still be Sala's candidacy in the end. Which wouldn't have a positive effect on the support in the board. In a board vote earlier this year, Ferrer defeated Sala 14-4 (or 13-5).

    But without Laporta's support, Ferrer probably won't have any chance in the elections. If he would run, it would only be to boycot the "official" continuity candidate.

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