Barcelona set to hold vote in next three months after campaign group claims to have collected over 20,000 signatures calling for Bartomeu's removal
Thursday 17 September 2020 21:17, UK
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu could be forced to step down after a group campaigning for his removal claimed to have collected enough signatures to force a vote of no confidence.
The group, named 'mes que una mocio' (more than a motion), says it has gathered 20,731 votes by Thursday's deadline. Only 16,520 are needed to force a no-confidence vote in the president by Barcelona's 150,000 members.
The signatures will need to be verified by a panel - comprising two members from the club, the first two signatories of the motion and a member of the Catalan football federation - before the vote can go ahead.
If at least 16,520 of the signatures are valid, Barcelona must hold the vote within 10 to 20 days. If 66.5 per cent of the club's members vote against Bartomeu, he must step down.
Should the vote take place and fail, Bartomeu will still have to stand aside in March, when Barcelona will elect a new president, as he will have already served the maximum two terms.
The motion was started in August by one of the candidates in next year's election, Jordi Farre, a day after Lionel Messi announced he was leaving the club.
Messi has since reversed his stance, saying he did not want a legal battle with Barcelona, but dissatisfaction with Bartomeu continues.
He has attracted criticism due to the club's unsteady finances as well as their disappointing results on the pitch. Barcelona ended last season without a trophy for the first time in 12 years, and were thrashed 8-2 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quater-finals.
Club member Agusti Benedito tried to trigger a vote of no confidence against Bartomeu in September 2017 but only managed to gather 12,504 votes.
Only two previous Barcelona presidents have faced votes of no confidence - Josep Lluis Nunez in 1998 and Joan Laporta ten years later. Both votes failed.
Messi said earlier this month he changed his mind over his decision to leave Barcelona after Bartomeu reneged on his promise to allow the forward to walk away from the club.
Messi had believed that a clause in his contract would allow him to leave for free in this transfer window, but Barcelona and La Liga insisted that his €700m release clause would need to be paid in full.
"I thought and we were sure that I'd be a free agent," Messi told Goal.
"The president always told me that I could decide to stay or go at the end of the season and they're now clinging to the fact that I hadn't said anything by June 10, when it turns out that on June 10 the La Liga season was still ongoing and we were in the midst of this virus and this illness that altered the whole fixture calendar.
"And that's the reason why I'm staying on at the club. I'm now staying because the president told me that the only way I could leave was by paying the €700m release clause, which is impossible."
