Barcelona club member Agusti Benedito has formally declared a vote of no confidence against Josep Maria Bartomeu’s board.
Benedito ran for Barca’s presidency in 2010 and 2015, losing on both occasions, but he is now leading a charge to depose Bartomeu and his board after a summer marred by off-field issues.
“With regards to the presentation of the application for a vote of no-confidence by member Mr. Agustí Benedito, FC Barcelona make the following points,” began a statement on the club’s official website.
“1) In accordance with the article 55.2 of the Club Statutes, the holding of a no-confidence vote requires an application of 15% of the members who meet the requirements to be electors.
“2) To work out the percentage correctly, the total number of members with a right to vote on the day of the presentation of the vote must be taken into account. As such, the electoral register closes of the day of the presentation of the no-confidence vote with a total of 110,648 members.
“3) Therefore, to hold the vote, the support of 16,570 members is needed.
“4) For this reason, within the limit of five working days set out in the Statues, the Club – today – has made available to the applicants 33,140 forms, double what is necessary.
“5) The parties applying for the no-confidence vote have 14 working days, staring from the following day the forms are made available, i.e. tomorrow, to provide evidence of the support necessary. This time limit follows the interpretation and application as have been used in recent electoral processes, and importantly, discounting the application of administrative regulations with FC Barcelona not being publically administered.”
Vice-President Jordi Cardoner added: “Now is not the right time to do it, and for our part we believe that these types of events are more suited to the end of season, when an evaluation, both sporting and of the Board, can be made and not when the season has just begun.
“I am pleased to say that members, who are the owners of this organisation, can bring about actions such as the one that began on Friday.”
