Poll result: Who do you (not) want to be president?

This is the final result (in percentages) of this blog's Who would you vote for in the elections for president of FC Barcelona? poll that was held one day before the elections:

Sandro Rosell 35,9
Marc Ingla 25,6
Agustí Benedito 20,5
Jaume Ferrer 14,6
Don't know/Don't answer 3,4

This is the final result (in percentages) of this blog's Who do you NOT want to be the next president of FC Barcelona? poll that was held one day before the elections:

Sandro Rosell 61,9
Marc Ingla 12,4
Agustí Benedito 11,9
Jaume Ferrer 9,4
Don't know/Don't answer 4,5

Live Coverage: Fourth presidential debate

Barcelona presidential candidates Agustí Benedito, Jaume Ferrer, Marc Ingla and Sandro Rosell hold the foourth and last presidential debate on Catalan television channel TV3. Re-fresh!

The presidency of Laporta

Benedito: "Laporta is the president of the best Barça in history. He changed the club at a crucial moment. The problem is that he later forget about the original project."

Ferrer: "Like Guardiola, I would say thanks to the president for those seven years. During this presidency we changed the club. We won a record number of trophies. Economically we've recovered. We have more members and fan clubs than ever."

Ingla: "I also want to say thanks to the president. Another thing I want to point out is the fight against the hooligans. At the end, he made overexposed himself a bit."

Rosell: "The first big decision was to keep the violent people out of the stadium. The second was to put unicef on the shirt, I want to congratulate the coach for that. And thirdly, the appointment of Guardiola. Not good were the political involvement and the link with the members. Economically there are too much expenses."

Sports area

Ferrer: "What is working, shouldn't be touched. We will continue with the same playing style and the same people. We'll put even more emphasis on the youth academy and the other sections."

Ingla: "We want to continue. We also want to keep Txiki, one of the architects of this model, like Rijkaard and Cruyff. If Txiki wouldn't continue, Txiki and Guardiola will help to decide on his successor. We should have youth academies abroad."

Rosell: "This is the model we've started in 2003, so we'll keep the same model. Since Txiki has already said he won't stay, we will appoint somebody else. We will offer Guardiola a contract of 6 years, that will be renewable each year. We will close deals with foreign clubs."

Benedito: "We all share this model, but the model isn't linked with people."

Ferrer: "Txiki didn't say he will stop. I talked with him and I'm convinced he will want to continue."

Rosell: "If Txiki wants to continue, we'll talk with him and give him the chance to explain himself, we'll explain him our project and if Guardiola als wants it, he'll continue."

Ingla: "Sandro has a youth academy in Qatar and that could cause conflicts of interests."

Rosell: "It's just a solidary project. And I will sell my company."

Ingla: "We have been contacted by Rooney and two, three other players but we passed the information to Txiki."

Ferrer+Rosell+Benedito: "The people from the sports departmen should decide on the transfers, we can only put financial limits."

Economic area

Ingla: "We're far better than in 2003. Unicef is a good decision. Foster, We won't execute it."

Rosell: "We will reduce the expenses, so we can keep on growing."

Benedito: "We should make profit. We should not be forced to sell assets if we want to invest."

Ferrer: "The economic situation of the club is very good. In 2003, we lost money. Now we're making profits."

Rosell: "Unicef will continue, Foster won't be executed but we will profoundly remodel the stadium."

Benedito: "If we will be elected, we will stop the reclassification of the miniestadi site."

Ingla: "The times of the games can't be changed, the televisions won't accept it."

Ferrer: "It's populist Rosell wants to play at 5pm, the television rights will drop by 50%."

Social area

Rosell: "I've talked with a lot of members and want to give them again the feeling that they the owners of the club."

Benedito: "We want to make the members feel represented. Rosell is the reprensentative of the elite."

Ferrer: "we want to keep the people happy by winning, that's the first thing. We want the most Catalan and the most global Barça in history. The foundation should also continue with the international agreements."

Ingla: "We want to give more comfort to the members when coming to the stadium. We want to help the members who have financial problems. We don't want to exclude anyone."

Final statement

Benedito: "We'll the candidacy of the people. No one expected we would arrive here and we will fight until the end."

Ferrer: "The continuity of the best Barça in history is in play."

Ingla: "We shouldn't change the model of the club. Our candidacy has the most experience, we're the guarantee of this model."

Rosell: "We know what the member wants, everything what he wants is in our program. We won't fail."

Rosell company involved in Brazilian investigation

1. On 19 November 2008, the Brazilian national team plays a friendly game against Portugal to inaugurate the remodelled Walmir Campelo Bezerra stadium, usually known as Bezerrão, in the federal district of Brasília.

The match is organized by Ailanto, a Brazilian company of current Barcelona presidential candidate Sandro Rosell, that bought the rights for the friendly game from Catalan sports marketing company Bonus Sports Marketing (BSM), that is also owned by Rosell.

BSM had earlier bought the rights of the Brazilian team from International Sports Events (ISE), a company that is located on the Cayman Islands and that owns the rights of the friendly games of the Brazilian national team.

2. In March 2009, regional Brazilian radio station CBN Brasília reports that there's an investigation of the public prosecutor ongoing regarding the contract for the organization of the friendly between the governement of Brasilia and Ailanto.

The press reports say that the radio claims that Ailanto is an apparent ghost company that wouldn't even have an own phone and that Rosell, who is said to be linked with ISE, is an intimate friend of Ricardo Teixeira, the president of the Brazilian football federation who in the past has already been linked to similar irregularities.

As a consecuence of the media reports, Paulo Tadeu, a member of the regional parlement, asks for more information about the case which leads to a report by the Court of Audit. In July 2009, five public prosecutors issue a "public civil action of responsibility for an act of administrative misconduct" against governor José Roberto Arruda, secretary of sports Agnaldo Silva de Oliveira and Ailanto.

3. The public prosecutor basically points out that the correct procedures regarding the awarding and the executing of the contract - that was closed only one week before the game while the event couldn't be organized in such a short time according to the prosecutor - have not been followed. For example, several documents have not been presented in due time or were incomplete, and the governor personally gave the order for some payments.

Regarding the fee that was paid by the governement to Ailanto for the rights on the game and the organization, the public prosecutor says that the price of around 4,1 million euros is too high, using the word "absurd", that the fee is not properly explained and that the government also paid some costs that according to the contracts should have been paid by Ailanto.

The public prosecutor claims that Ailanto, that is described as a company ad hoc, "acted with a fraudulent intention and clearly in bad faith" and concludes by asking the judge for further investigations and to condemn all three parties involved.

As for Ailanto, the public prosecutor asks, among other things, to condemn the company to pay back the entire fee (together with the two others) and to exclude the company of doing business or getting any financial support from the government for the coming three years.

4. In September of last year, the lawyers of Ailanto put down their reply to the acusations of the public prosecutor. Ailanto basically claims that the public prosecutor made a mistake regarding the procedure that had to be followed for the awarding of the contract so that the accusation at that point is invalid.

Regarding the fee that was paid, Ailanto denies that it would be too high and explains how it has come to the final price. The secretary of sports also puts down his declaration while the governor was called up to testify at the end of March of this year.

Nevertheless, in November 2009, the local police launches the 'Box of Pandora' operation in Brasília, targetting a wide-spread network of government corruption, involving governor José Roberto Arruda, who is arrested and put in prison last February. In April, Arruda is released on bail. The now ex-governor still has to testify in the 'Brazil vs Portugal' case.

5. After some rumours about the case were spreading on the internet, former Barcelona press officer Jordi Badia starts a series on the matter on his blog on Friday 21 May. In several episodes, Badia explains the case in detail, adding links to press reports and official documents.

The news is picked up by the mainstream media on Tuesday 25 May after Rosell announces that he will file a lawsuit against Barcelona presidential candidate Marc Ingla, who had suggested in an interview that a company of Rosell had been "accused" in Brazil (read more here).

Rosell has been reluctant to talk about the matter and his candidacy did not put out any press release regarding the case. The defense of Rosell and people from his team is that Ailanto is not involved in any judicial case, that the public prosecutor is only investigating the corruption scandal linked to the governor and that his company in that regard has been asked to give information, like hundreds of other companies.

Last Friday, Ingla presented a note from a Brazilian law firm that says that Ailanto is being judicially investigated in a case of possible fraud.

Read more:
Rosell to file lawsuit against Ingla

disclaimer: none of what is written above is the personal opinion of the author. the post is based on public news reports and presumed official documents, whose authenticity hasn't been challenged by any of the parties involved. if there is any doubt about the terminology used in this post, the words should be interpreted in a non-legal way. if anyone feels not correctly treated by this post, he can asks for a rectification by sending this blog a mail to the address that can be found at the right and below.

Live Coverage: Third presidential debate

Barcelona presidential candidates Agustí Benedito, Jaume Ferrer, Marc Ingla and Sandro Rosell held the third presidential debate on Catalan television channel 8tv.

Contract renewal Xavi

Rosell: "It's a good thing if the technical staff has approved it. He will most probably become the player with the most games at the club.

Benedito: "I'm happy."

Ingla: "Good news. Xavi has the Barça DNA, he could become a coach at the club later.

Ferrer: "He deserves to finish his career at Barça."

Role of the president

Ingla: "The president shouldn't intervene. The president shouldn't get involved in the sports area. A president shouldn't propose players to the coach and put pressure on them."

Rosell: "Everyone has his task but the president has to mark the limits."

Ferrer: "It depends on the moment. If Guardiola asks for Chygrynskiy after winning the treble, it's difficult not to follow him. But the president shouldn't think he knows more than the coach. He should stay away from the technical decisions and not want to throw out for example Rijkaard after some games, or dismiss Tito Vilanova [goes for Rosell]."

Benedito: "The president should only put economic limits."

Ferrer: "In February 2005, Rosell wanted to throw out Rijkaard and replace him by Gratacós, and later Scolari."

Ingla: "I confirm this."

Rosell: "That's not tru, I said we should turn things around or else the league could slip away. And first we indeed thought about Gratacos, because we didn't have money for another coach."

Benedito: "I was at that time part of the sports commission, following the handball section. I didn't have power to decide. And Rosell was indeed interventionist. Ingla also, in the marketing department."

Ingla: "I remember perfectly that Rosell wanted to change the coach just before winning the first league. As far as the marketing department is concerned, we were working hard to change things but I always worked with the permission of the board."

Ferrer: "Rosell has businesses in the world of football and that makes him wanting to intervene."

Rosell: "I will sell my business if I'm elected and I never represented players, I'm mostly working for multinationals. The times are also different, now the model is clear."

Ferrer: "Rosell left in 2005, because he didn't like the model we were building. Like Ingla in 2008, who also wanted Mourinho."

Rosell: "I left because we weren't executing the election program."

Ingla: "In November, we already wanted Guardiola. In January, Mourinho offered himself, so we went to see him but upon return I told the president we couldn't sign him. I have witnesses of that meeting, like former director Murtra."

Ingla: "Rosell brought lists with his favourite players to the board, like Maniche, Costinha and others, and the sports director had to choose."

Rosell: "We should finish the youth centre."

Ferrer: "We will finish it this year."

Rosell: "We want another youth academy, also for the other sections."

Ferrer: "We already have that."

Benedito: "We need more youth academy and private jets."

Ferrer: "Benedito has never been in the board so he can't know all that. Most private jets are put at our disposal by the FIFA and others to go and get the prizes of the players."

Successor Guardiola? Do we want to keep the style?

Ingla: "We should keep the style we put in place in 2003. We should have a long-term view."

Ferrer: "We'll see what happens with Guardiola, we'll start with 2-3 more years and then we'll see if he wants to stay."

Rosell: "We will try to convince Guardiola to stay for the six years. We should keep the style."

Youth academy

Ingla and Ferrer: "We want a more global youth academy."

Rosell and Benedito: "We should only have the academy in Barcelona."

Youth stand

Rosell: "We want it because we want more animation in the stadium."

Ingla: "The Catalans are like this, over the last years the atmosphere has already gotten better. A united youth stands is a chance for the hooligans to get back in."

Benedito: "Rosell is playing with fire, although I agree we need more animation. But we should analyze the issue very carefully."

Ferrer: "At the game against Inter for example, we had the best animation in years."

Social project

Ingla: "The member will have the power to decide in several area, like for exmple the honorary members. We want to stay solidary with the world around, but also with the members, who we want to help in difficult moments. We want to be closer than ever to the member."

Rosell: "We want to change the hours of the games in 2012 and play in the afternoon, so the families and children can come to the stadoum."

Benedito: "The fact that we have members is something unique in the world and we should finally give him the power he should have."

Ferrer: "We have listened to the members and we will implement what they asked us. We should renew the stadium so it's more user-friendly. We should offer cheaper packages for away games. We wants to be more solidary than ever."

Benedito: "We want to ask the members the chance to vote on proposals, for example every two months."

Ingla: "Barcelona is a feeling, we want to give everyone the chance to become a member, although we don't want to promote it."

Rosell, Ferrer and Benedito: "We should regulate the entrance of new members."

[picture] The second debate

The four presidential candidates held last night the second presidential candidates debate on Spanish television station TVE.

From left to right:
Sandro Rosell, Jaume Ferrer, Marc Ingla, Agustí Benedito

[picture] Sandro Rosell at the market

Barcelona presidential candidate Sandro Rosell visited yesterday a market in Barcelona.

Rosell wants Sala i Martin as advisor

Alex Santos, journalist of Spanish news agency EFE, reports on his blog that during a press conference today, Javier Faus, a member of the board team of Barcelona presidential candidate Sandro Rosell, has said that Rosell wants to count on current Barcelona treasurer Xavier Sala i Martín as advisor if he is elected as president.

Rosell wants to form a council of Catalan economists who would give the board advice regarding the finances of the club. Sala i Martín, who's an economy professor at Columbia University in New York and who joined the Barcelona board of directors last year, is one of the names on the list of people Rosell wants to count on.

Read more:
Sala i Martin to leave the club in July
Seven board members continue until 30 June
Rosell has concrete plan to limit club members

Poll Voting Intentions: One Week Before

This is the final result (in percentages) of this blog's Who would you vote for in the elections for president of FC Barcelona? poll that was held one week before the elections:

Marc Ingla 37.7
Sandro Rosell 24.3
Agusti Benedito 15.9
Jaume Ferrer 15.5
Don't know/Don't answer 6.7

compare with the results of february, march, april and may here

check more voting intention poll results

[picture] The first debate

The four presidential candidates held yesterday the first presidential candidates debate on Catalan radio station Catalunya Ràdio (read more here).

From left to right:
Jaume Ferrer, Sandro Rosell, [talkshow host Manel Fuentes], Agustí Benedito, Marc Ingla

The first presidential debate

Barcelona presidential candidates Agustí Benedito, Jaume Ferrer, Marc Ingla and Sandro Rosell held the first presidential debate on Catalan radio station Catalunya Ràdio.


Sports area

Ingla (against Rosell): "You won't even call Txiki when you are appointed, so tell the people what you really want."

Rosell: "We can't reveal our plan because that would make it more expensive."

Ingla: "Why don't you explain your business in Brasil? Maybe there's nothing wrong but the member at least has the right to get informed."

Rosell: "I will sell my businesses I have related to the world of sports if I'm elected as president."

Rosell: "There haven't been enough players promoted to the first team over the last years. Only Pedro and Jeffren, who I bought with Busquets. We should work better with the youth academy."

Benedito: "Txiki won't continue, his time is over."

Rosell: "Cruyff wanted to sign the triple A of Valencia: Albelda, Aimar and Ayala."

Ingla: "This Barça is build by Cruyff, Txiki, Rijkaard and Pep. The project of Rosell will break with all that. He will bring his own people in."

Ferrer: "Ingla wasn't there when we won the six cups, so it's strange he now claims those successes."

Benedito and Rosell: "No one will change the sporting model, it's working."

Economic area

Rosell: "There are too many expenses and some aren't clear."

Ingla: "Economically, Barça is better than ever. And we want to double the budget in the next six years. We want to open embassies, we want to go out in the world."

Benedito: "We have more revenues but the expenses have also risen."

Ingla: "We're a sporting club, we shouldn't make profits."

Catalan identity and legacy of Laporta

Rosell, Ingla and Benedito: "Oliver won't continue."

Ingla: "I've included the Catalan flag in the shirt."

Ingla: "We want an open club, Rosell wants to close the club to some families."

Benedito: "Laporta has done good things but also bad things. We shouldn't have relations with the Uzbek mafia."

Ferrer: "Barça didn't have a contract with Uzbekistan, but with an Uzbek club to play a friendly game."

Rosell: "40.000 people of Siberia could become club member and decide who will be the new president. We don't want to lose the Catalan identity of the club. We need to regulate the members."

Benedito: "The club member without season-tickets should get a discount of 50% for the tickets."

Ingla: "We want an open club."

Ferrer: "The number of members should be limited. We want another system so the people can be linked to the club in another way."

Ingla: "It's sad Rosell has made photos with factions of the Boixos Nois hooligans."

Rosell: "We want zero violence at the stadium."

Benedito: "The Boixos Nois are supporting Rosell, they are shouting 'Rosell president'. In meetings of Rosell with fan groups there have been representatives of the violent groups."

Ingla: "We need youth academies all over the world."

Rosell: "We should not have own youth academies but control the players through agreements."

Ferrer: "We have our academy in Argentina and it's working."

Conclusion

Ferrer: "What is working shouldn't be touched."

Benedito: "We are the alternative."

Ingla: "We have the best project, we're the guarantee that this model will continue. We've done a lot but there's a lot of work to do."

Rosell: "We know what the member want after a lot of meetings."

[picture] The children of Sandro Rosell

The candidacy of Sandro Rosell organized this week an event for children at their campaign headquarters.

The Quotes: Benedito, Ingla, Ferrer, Rosell

"50% of the voters didn't yet make a decision. And I think the vote of the other 50% could still change."

Agustí Benedito


"We've received information regarding Wayne Rooney and we've passed that through to Txiki."

Marc Ingla


"You have to stand up to the hooligans and not make pictures with them, as some have been doing."

Jaume Ferrer


"I expected some rumours or some little lies but it seems people have invested quite a bit of money in investigations. But I guess in the end it's good people talk about you, for good or for bad."

Sandro Rosell

read more election quotes here

[picture] Sandro Rosell and his sofa

Barcelona presidential candidate Sandro Rosell has been travelling throughout Catalonia for the past few weeks to explain his program to the club members and fans.

Rosell has concrete plan to limit club members

Asked about a possible limitation of the number of club members, Jordi Cardoner [picture, on the left], head of the social area of the candidacy of Barcelona presidential candidate Sandro Rosell, has said in an interview with Catalan radio station RAC 1 that they have a concrete plan to put a stop to the growth of new members:

"We think that the idea of unlimited growth promoted by the board was socially not correct. It would have been terrible if we today would have had 750.000 or 1.000.000 club members as was mentioned back then. We think that we should put a stop to the growth so that the current members really could enjoy the benefits of being a member.

What we will do is announce a period of three months during which everyone who isn't yet a member can make the decision of becoming it. After that period, only two groups could become a member: family members in the first or second degree of a member, or children who would be given the chance to grow up with the club."

Read more:
Rosell wants to regulate new members
Ingla wants to appoint club ambassadors
Cardoner: "The member always has the last word"

Rosell, Ingla, Ferrer and Benedito official candidates

Barcelona board secretary Josep Cubells has this evening announced that Barcelona presidential candidates Sandro Rosell, Marc Ingla, Jaume Ferrer and Agustí Benedito have passed the cut of the 2.095 signatures of club members needed to take part in the final vote on Sunday 13 June.

These are the official numbers:
- Rosell: 12.635 validated signatures (13.620 presented - 985 invalid)
- Ingla: 4.288 validated signatures (4.744 presented - 456 invalid)
- Ferrer: 3.935 validated signatures (4.442 presented - 507 invalid)
- Benedito: 2.520 validated signatures (2.896 presented - 376 invalid)

Read more:
The final number of signatures of support
The electoral proceedings
The process of collecting the signatures

Inter hopes to sign Guardiola after elections

Italian newspaper La Repubblica claims that Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola is the number one candidate to replace José Mourinho as coach of Inter Milan. The Italian club would be postponing the decision on their new manager until after the presidential elections at Barcelona.

Because of a supposed total lack of feeling between presidential candidate Sandro Rosell and Guardiola, Inter reportedly think they have a chance to sign the Catalan coach if Rosell is elected as new president on Sunday 13 June.

Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Guardiola wants to meet with the new president on 14 June to learn first hand about the future of the sports area, among other things about who could become the new sports director. Guardiola would continue next season and the signing of a new contract isn't considered to be a problem.

Read more:
Rosell wants Guardiola for six more years
Poll result: Would Guardiola be a good president?
Ferrer: "Guardiola and Begiristian are untouchable"

Rosell considers Koeman as sports director

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that former Barcelona player Ronald Koeman (47) could replace Txiki Begiristain as sports director of Barcelona if Sandro Rosell would be elected as president on Sunday 13 June.

Although no final decision has yet been made, people of the candidacy of Rosell would have been talking with Koeman, who hasn't been active as coach since he was dismissed last December by Dutch club AZ and who now regularly works as television pundit for the Dutch television.

Ronald Koeman played six seasons for Barcelona, arriving in 1989 from Dutch club PSV Eindhoven and leaving in the summer of 1995 for Dutch club Feyenoord Rotterdam. From the summer of 1998 until the year 2000, he was the assistant coach of Barcelona manager Louis van Gaal.

With Barcelona, Koeman won four consecutive Spanish league titles from 1991 to 1994, a Spanish cup in 1990, three Spanish Super Cups in 1991, 1992 and 1994, one Champions Leauge in 1992 and one European Super Cup in 1992. As assistant, he won one league title in 1999.

Read more:
Zubizarreta main option to replace Begiristain
Txiki: "My future will depend on new president"
Former player Amor supports candidacy Rosell

The Quotes: Rosell, Ingla, Ferrer, Benedito

"We're all again starting from zero."

Sandro Rosell


"We've come out from the first minute trying to win this game and we've only played the first minutes."

Marc Ingla


"I feel that a lot of people are changing their voting intention now that they start to know all projects better."

Jaume Ferrer


"The feeling I have is that Sandro Rosell won't win these elections. The member doesn't like it that others decide in his place."

Agustí Benedito

read more election quotes here

Cartoon 39: Rosell overpowers opponents

* Rosell shows his electoral muscles

13.618 signatures *

(click the cartoon to enlarge)


by kap

source:
el mundo deportivo

check more election cartoons here

The final number of signatures of support

These are the final numbers of signatures of club members that were collected by the pre-candidates in the elections for president of FC Barcelona:

Sandro Rosell 13.618
Marc Ingla 4.744
Jaume Ferrer 4.442
Agustí Benedito 2.896
Jaume Guixà 1.845
Alexis Plaza 1.209
Santiago Salvat ?

The signatures of the four pre-candidates with the most support among club members were brought to the club and will be checked in the coming days. To pass the cut of the signatures and to be able to take part in the final vote on 13 June, candidates should have 2.095 validated signatures.

Alexis Plaza didn't present his signatures but brought them to a notary who counted and destroyed them. Jaume Guixà and Santiago Salvat didn't present their signatures eiter. Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Salvat in the end would have collected around 1.100 signatures.

Read more:
Live Coverage: End of signatures process