Joan Laporta resigns as Barcelona president to trigger elections

Joan Laporta has officially resigned as Barcelona president in a procedural move to trigger the club's electoral process. He is seeking a fresh mandate from members on March 15 and has left a management commission in charge as he prepares to face Víctor Font and three other candidates.

The resignation is a formality required by the club’s statutes to ensure a level playing field during the campaign and to prevent the sitting president from using the club’s daily apparatus for election purposes. Day-to-day operations will be overseen by a management commission led by sporting vice-president Rafa Yuste, tasked with maintaining stability and neutrality until the vote.

Laporta remains the favourite, but he will meet competition from Víctor Font, who finished second in 2021 with 16,679 votes to Laporta’s 30,184, and from Marc Ciria, Xavier Vilajoana and Joan Camprubi. Every candidate, including Laporta, must collect 2,321 valid signatures from club members to appear on the ballot, a threshold that often narrows the field.

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