22 days and still counting down. That’s how long until Barcelona members elect their new president to fill the feat vacated by the colossal misfit Josep Maria Bartomeu, and it now appears that it could already be just a two-horse race.
As part of the due diligence, all candidates who wish to be considered for election must have polled at least 2,257 votes in the first stage, after which those who have met this prerequisite then go forward to the final stage whereby they can be voted in by the members. If they don’t garner the initial amount of votes then they are withdrawn from the race at that point.
Surprisingly, or maybe not, Sport reports that are all struggling to get across the line.
It also looks like the intelligence of the voters is not to be underestimated as Fabian Martin’s ploy of sending out 500 pizzas to potential voters doesn’t appear to have done the trick at all.
Although there are still 10 more days until the end of the first stage, there is genuine concern that only Joan Laporta and Victor Font could be the only ones who will have earned enough signatures to go forward and be pitted against each other.
Laporta is the early favourite as it clearly augurs in his favor and advantage that he held the post between 2003-2010. It’s also highly possible that Barcelona’s cautious members may well go down the ‘better the devil you know rather than the angel you don’t’ route rather than taking another helluva risk with an unknown like Font, despite his suave demeanor and promises a-plenty.