Barcelona: Laporta achieves approval of his accounts in the face of opposition

• Jordi Blanco, Correspondent in BarcelonaOct 19, 2024, 12:31

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  • He has watched Barcelona at the Camp Nou since his childhood. • Since 1987 he began to collaborate in the Diario de Barcelona, ​​joining the editorial staff of the newspaper Sport two years later. • Since July 2013 he has been a correspondent for ESPN Deportes Digital in Barcelona.

Laporta’s board achieved approval of its accounts in the most controversial Barcelona assembly in recent years against strong opposition

BARCELONA — John Laporta was torn off in the assembly of delegates of the Barcelona with “they are neither here nor expected” to discredit the opposition, but it is increasingly organized against a directive that this Saturday saved its accountsthe approval of the settlement of the fiscal year of the 2023-24 seasonwith about 25 percent of votes against, a situation never seen before but that did not serve to overthrow the board.

The settlement of the financial year of the 2023-24 seasonthe most important point of the assemblywas thus approved with a total participation of 634 delegate members of the Barcelona. Among them, the favorable vote was 452 members (71.29 percent), 156 against (24.61 percent) and 26 blank votes (4.1 percent).

Laporta, at an event with the Barcelona EPA

“They have tried by all means, in all ways, but they won’t be able to. Not even with all their lies,” a club source told ESPN, both satisfied with the result of the vote and convinced that many of the opposing votes to his management they were “simply due to ignorance or the pleasure of voting against.”

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The truth is, however, that the opposition to Joan Laporta has grown and in the absence of organizing and uniting, a possibility that at the moment seems difficult, is beginning to bother the board, two years before the elections are due to be held (scheduled for summer 2026).

There is now the possibility that the assembly was contested, but from the club it is understood as nonsense. “It wouldn’t make any sense,” said the same source, as aware of the growth of the opposition as he was convinced that at the end of the day, “they are the usual 20 percent, the usual ones that we already know.”

GROWING DISCORDANCE
The ultimate reality is that discordant voices are growing around a Barcelona that is accelerating the work on the Camp Nou, enjoying an almost idyllic sporting moment and has discovered an unexpected catapult in the need to use the quarry.

The social situation is not the best but the board keeps its pulse and does not give in to the wear and tear of four years in which they insist on remembering growth in every sense.

In 2021, Laporta held his first assembly without opposition, approving the financing of Espai Barça with an increase of 1,500 million euros in debt that was added to the 1,300 million at that time. After a year, in 2022, the president also did not suffer in an assembly that consented and ratified what was called ‘levers’which was nothing more than the sale of assets worth more than 600 million euros.

The first opposition outbreaks against Laporta were already born there, personalized by Víctor Font who has become his main discordant voice, which is not the only one this year, after in 2023 the figure of Negreira, used by the board to divert the focus, will take all the limelight.

Blunt
“We are saving the club. We do not pay attention to the catastrophic proclamations of some and we are determined and willing to finish the economic recovery of the club,” said the president in a firm speech that lasted just over half an hour and in which, after announcing that Barcelona is “much better than in 2021, when we arrived”, he asked for “unity” among Barcelona fans due to the attacks that, in his opinion, are multiplying.

“We are cleaning up Barça’s economy without putting the ownership model at risk,” proclaimed Laporta, who referred to Barça Vision (the lever that Víctor Font described as “bluff”), admitting its current problems but placing emphasis on its valuation and possibilities of future. “Barça Vision has not finished functioning as we wanted. It is a company that has operated little and there have been defaults but we have been brave and faced these defaults that have caused us those negative results of 91 million euros… The auditor has changed the valuation of the company but we have made a valuation according to Aramark’s latest investment…”.

“Barça Vision is a gold mine and in the future it will be one of the club’s main sources of income. This loss due to non-payment is a fixed snapshot, but we have the investment of Aramark and other companies that are in the due diligence process so In a short time it will bring benefits,” said the president, who did not miss the opportunity to throw a dart at the opposition. “We have to show ourselves to be strong… I insist that I do not share the apocalyptic predictions of some, who are not there nor are they expected because at Barça we have to be strong to fight against everything.”