9:00 -10:00

Ingla: "I feel there's a good atmosphere, let's hope that there's a high turn-out."

Ingla: "I see it's not raining. That's today's first prediction that appears to be wrong."

Marc Ingla arrives at the stadium to vote.

Laporta: "We've managed for Barça to be the number one club in the world. We've done that with a straight attitude and as we said we have dedicated the best years of our lives to the club. We wanted a Catalan, solidary and universal Barça and I think we have achieved that."

Laporta: "I ask the members to go and vote today. I'm sure we'll have model elections and that the member will take part and enjoys this day."

Laporta: "I will leave the club as a satisfied and happy man because I think that my mission has been accomplished."

At 9:28, Barcelona president Joan Laporta has casted his vote.

First reports say that already one hour before the vote, people were approaching the stadium. At this moment, there are already large waiting lines.

Jaume Ferrer has arrived at the stadium. He's nevertheless only expected to vote around 10:30.

The new president will be the 39th president in the history of the club

The four names that are on the ballot paper today are: Agustí Benedito, Jaume Ferrer, Marc Ingla and Jaume Ferrer.

It is expected that around 50.000 members will come to the Camp Nou to vote, which could be more or less the same as in 2003, when 51.618 voted for Joan Laporta as the new president.

118.662 club members have the right to chose the president, which is 24.000 more than in the last elections in 2003.

The vote has started at 9 am at the Camp Nou. We'll cover the events until we know who will be the next president of FC Barcelona.

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

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

(second poll below!)

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.

Guixa will vote for Ferrer

Speaking at a press conference and further explaining his position in an open letter, former Barcelona presidential pre-candidate Jaume Guixà, who didn't pass the cut of the signatures, has said that he will vote on Sunday for presidential candidate Jaume Ferrer:

"Although I dislike the excesses of Laporta, I will vote for Jaume Ferrer. I will vote for him because I think he's a solid, serious, discreet and serene person who can deal with the pressure, because he believes in the youth academy and because I know the players and coaches respect him.

I will vote for Jaume Ferrer because he has been the most conciliatory candidate in the debates and because I like his latest proposal to include in the statutes of the club the incompatibility between being a director and having businesses in the world of sports."

Read more:
Guixa will make his vote public
The final number of signatures of support
Plaza will return blank ballot paper

Cartoon 44: A Camp Nou 2.0?

Fan A:
Soriano proposes to create a Camp Nou 2.0.

Which would mean that the fans could get all kind of information through their mobile phone.

Fan B:
I prefer a Camp Nou where we win all games with at least 2-0.

(click the cartoon to enlarge)


by kap

source:
el mundo deportivo

check more election cartoons here