Bartomeu doubts between calling elections in January or March

Bartomeu doubts between calling elections in January or March

Josep Maria Bartomeu, presidente del FC Barcelona
Josep Maria Bartomeu, presidente del FC Barcelona | VALENTÍ ENRICH

The president has 10 months to go and isn't going to quit just yet

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu is not thinking about resigning -- despite the humiliating Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich. 

He has 10 months to run on his mandate and wants to continue until at least 2021 out of "responsibility". His intention is to bring forward elections, though, and is thinking about either January or March to ensure the new board has time to prepare its project.

The opposition (Victor Font and Joan Laporta have already spoken out) are unanimous in their belief that Bartomeu should quit and call elections. 

But the president will resist. He considers that the club are in a critical moment (economically and sportingly) and that an electoral process would not be damaging.  

Bartomeu doesn't want to put the next season at risk. He wants to take decisions (change of manager and the renovation of the squad) so that things don't get worse. But he wants to do it without the hypothetical new president. Two ideas which are difficult to combine. 

There will be a board meeting on Monday to discuss the next steps and to move ahead with the decisions which had already been taken -- Bartomeu said after the Bayern loss that some decisions had already been made regardless of the outcome in the Champions League. 

The doubt is whether it will be best to have elections in January or March. 

Topics with the letter