[Sport]Barça partners corner Bartomeu and drag him to the vote of no confidence

[SougarLord]

 

In the midst of a pandemic, without games open to the public at the Camp Nou and with reformulated Statutes to favor the foreman.

 

But such is the outrage among the social mass of Barcelona with the board of directors that Josep Maria Bartomeu, if he does not decide to resign first, will become the third president in the history of the club to be subjected to a vote of no confidence.

 

The Table at the forefront of this process requested by Jordi Farré (with the support of the also pre-candidates Víctor Font, Lluís Fernández Alà and eight opinion groups) has validated this Wednesday the minimum number of signatures required (16,520, 15% of the electoral census) .

 

Josep Lluís Núñez (1998) and Joan Laporta (2008) already went through similar torment. In both cases, the leaders managed to save the position. For Bartomeu and his cronies to leave the entity, and according to the club's charter, they would have to obtain an unfavorable result of 66.6%. That is, two thirds or more of the partners with the right to vote against it.

 

There is also another important condition to highlight. For the vote to be valid, participation must reach at least 10% of the social mass of Barcelona. The voting table, once the count is finished, will have between 10 and 20 business days (including Saturdays here) to establish the voting day, which will have to be notified five days before the celebration.

 

REFERENDUM IN THE FULL PANDEMIC

The referendum, in any case, must be approved by the Generalitat and its health authorities. The Board has already raised a question to the General Secretary of l'Esport to make sure that the appropriate security conditions are in place to call a vote of no confidence in person, to which 110,133 members will be summoned. In the last decree law added to the Llei de l'Esport (31/2020 of September 😎 the Generalitat does not refer to the issue. The Territorial Plan of Civil Action of Catalonia (Procicat) prohibits the meetings of more than six people in both the public and private spheres to break the chains of community transmission of the coronavirus.

 

The pressure against Bartomeu is already reaching unbearable limits. While the examining judge number 13 of Barcelona, Alejandra Gil, continues to instruct the so-called Barçagate (without ruling out that both the president and some of his main collaborators are called to testify), the economic situation of the entity brings the club closer to the abyss.

 

ECONOMIC ABYSS AND SALARY CUTS

This Monday, Barcelona was unable to correspond to coach Ronald Koeman with the signings of Memphis Depay and Eric García. After focusing on alleviating the sports wage bill (636 million euros) and admitting that the entity's debt already amounts to 820 million euros, the club's Human Resources Department informed all its workers that a process of "modification of working conditions for economic reasons".

 

The Barça club makes it clear that this measure affects both people with a "common employment relationship" and those who have "a special employment relationship", such as first-team footballers. And that the administrative staff of Barcelona represents only between 3% and 4% of the spending budget. Light years away from the 71% that the sports staff brings together.

 

Based on article 41 of the Workers' Statute, the Bartomeu management team foresees a consultation period of 15 days after a negotiation table is set up in which professional athletes will also be represented.

 

In any case, as happened during the confinement period, Barcelona expect to reach private salary reduction agreements with their players. Then, the captain of the first team, Leo Messi, attacked the board after a turbulent cut negotiation. The board keeps the way open to explore solutions such as the one employed with the star of the basketball team, Niko Mirotic, to whom the duration of the contract was extended to space salary payments.

 

That Bartomeu has started this negotiation in the week in which the validation of the signatures of the vote of no confidence is closed is due, as they maintain in the entity, to the attempt to get his board to conclude his mandate. He will achieve this if this board manages to reach the elections announced for March 20 and 21, 2021. This would allow him to remain in office until June 30, 2021 -this would be when the incoming board would take office- and close this new exercise economic.

 

MANAGEMENT COMMISSION

 

But if the vote of no confidence expels the current directive from the command of Barcelona, a Management Commission would be constituted, which would be in charge of the president of the Club's Economic Commission (Carles Tusquets) and whose "main function", according to the Statutes It would be to call elections in three months. Said Management Committee would limit its work to the "necessary and essential acts for the maintenance of the normal activities of the club and the protection of its interests".

 

Bartomeu, who fears becoming the first Barça president to be overthrown by a vote of no confidence, continues to hold talks with his managers to make a decision. Next week there will be a meeting of the board in which he will set the course to follow in his descent into hell.