Soriano meeting with Godall and Sala

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that former Barcelona economic vice-president Ferran Soriano has been meeting over the past days and weeks with Barcelona board members.

Soriano would recently have had a dinner with Barcelona treasurer Xavier Sala i Martín in New York, where Sala i Martín is professor of economics at Columbia University. The current chairman of Spanish airline Spanair would also have met several times with Barcelona first vice-president Alfons Godall, the last time on Tuesday when the two went for a light afternoon meal at a Farga restaurant in Barcelona.

It wouldn't be clear who took the initiative for the meetings and what has been discussed but for Soriano everything is reportedly still open: from supporting passively or actively a candidate (who could be a current director or a director who left with Soriano last year) to leading a candidacy for the presidency himself.

Two options would nevertheless be excluded for the former vice-president: establishing a pact with former sports vice-president Sandro Rosell and joining a candidacy that would include current Barcelona chief executive Joan Oliver.

When Barcelona president Joan Laporta took office in 2003, Soriano became, besides vice-president, also "emergency" chief executive. Oliver was at that time one of the candidates to succeed him but didn't pass the selection procedure. The job in the end went to Anna Xicoy, who had to leave the club after last year's vote of no confidence and was replaced by Oliver.

Catalan sports paper Sport meanwhile claims that Soriano would be considering to not getting actively involved in a candidacy for the presidency. His new job at the head of an airline wouldn't allow him to find the time necessary to take up a position at Barcelona.

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Soriano: "I will take part in the electoral debate"
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