What will Evarist Murtra do?

After Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola dedicated his team's victory in the World Cup for Clubs to former Barcelona director Evarist Murtra, there has been some speculation in the Catalan press about the role of Murtra in the upcoming elections.

At the press confernce after the game against Estudiantes on 19 December last year, Guardiola said: "I want to dedicate this victory to Evarist Murtra, I'm sure he's very happy. He was a person who with his insistence made the board think about me when they were looking for a coach for the second team and he has taught me great values. He deserves this."

Evarist Murtra (picture) is a 60-year old Catalan textile entrepreneur who has been active in the entourage of the club for more than two decades. After having co-founded a Barcelona opposition group, Murtra supported presidential candidate Sixte Cambra in the 1989 elections.

In February 1993, he joined the board of Josep Lluís Núñez. Three years later, Murtra resigned from his post as vice-president, officially because of professional reasons that left him with too little time but Murtra admitted later that internal board problems regarding the bank guarantee presidential candidates have to put down caused his exit.

In the 1997 elections, Murtra was a possible candidate but in the end he didn't take part after having failed to find a deal with Núñez challenger Angel Fernández and returned a blank ballot paper. In 2000 and 2003, Murtra supported presidential candidate Lluís Bassat who was twice the runner-up.

In November 2005, Murtra became a member of the board of Joan Laporta (read more here). He is believed to have been one of the main supporters of wearing the Unicef logo on the team's shirt and of the appointment of Guardiola as coach of, first, the second team and, later, the first team. In July 2008, Evarist Murtra left the board after the vote of no confidence (read more here).

this was the first part of this post. read the second part here.

Read more:
Bassat rejects offers to take part in elections
The Board, 6-7 Years Later (2) : The movements
Former candidate Angel Fernandez will not run