Vote in the FC Barcelona Presidential Election!

[Admiral Yi]

Last guy.  Looks a little like the hero scientist in Chernobyl.

[Barrister]

Okay, so it's a soccer club President, not the leader of the country... plus they're all white males in suits, so I can't even go by that.

I'm going with the last fellow - the no tie, unshaven look says to me he's too busy to worry about such superficial details.  He's a man who gets results.

BB, voting for somebody without a tie? 

I'm looking for different things in a sports exec than a leader of a country.

Although the whole idea of voting for a sports team President.  Even for the handful of teams over here that are publicly owned (some CFL teams are owned by the community) the President is just appointed by city leaders.

[celedhring]

Well, the ownership of the club falls on its membership, and thus the members appoint the board that runs it. Most Spanish clubs used to be run that way until the law was changed in the 1990s and became regular sports companies with owners and such. Escape clauses were given to Barça and Real Madrid (because they are Barça and Real Madrid), a few other clubs also qualified.

As a lifelong fan (no longer a member, though) I have always loved that the club belonged to the members, however it makes the running of the club insanely political (in the sense that you have a very definite constituency you have to please).

[Sheilbh]

As a lifelong fan (no longer a member, though) I have always loved this, however it makes the running of the club insanely political (in the sense that you have a constituency you have to please).

And they make big campaign promises that maybe don't help the club?

I think it's really fun from the outside. Very different here. Do they have elections like this in Germany too? I feel like Thomas Hitzlsperger has been running or ran for President of Stuttgart, but I'm not sure.

[The Larch]

And they make big campaign promises that maybe don't help the club?

Nowadays it's a bit frowned upon, but back in the day candidates would normally promise big name signings. That's how Figo went from Barcelona to R. Madrid back in the day, for instance.

[Zanza]

As a lifelong fan (no longer a member, though) I have always loved this, however it makes the running of the club insanely political (in the sense that you have a constituency you have to please).

And they make big campaign promises that maybe don't help the club?

I think it's really fun from the outside. Very different here. Do they have elections like this in Germany too? I feel like Thomas Hitzlsperger has been running or ran for President of Stuttgart, but I'm not sure.

The German clubs these days are typically organized as companies majority-owned by the original amateur club.

The Stuttgart professional team for example is owned 88.25% by the amateur sports club VfB Stuttgart e.V. (rest owned by Mercedes) - which like all German clubs is organized democratically, i.e. elects all important club offices.

Wolfsburg (company team of Volkswagen) and Leverkusen (company team of Bayer) are grandfathered exceptions.

RB Leipzig is de facto owned by Red Bull and circumvents the rule that teams have to be majority-owned by their original amateur clubs by having just a handful of members in the original club, all of which are aquaintances of the Red Bull owner.

[celedhring]

As a lifelong fan (no longer a member, though) I have always loved this, however it makes the running of the club insanely political (in the sense that you have a constituency you have to please).

And they make big campaign promises that maybe don't help the club?

I think it's really fun from the outside. Very different here. Do they have elections like this in Germany too? I feel like Thomas Hitzlsperger has been running or ran for President of Stuttgart, but I'm not sure.

Campaign promises are not that important nowadays, the issues is rather the kind of things you do in order to mantain your popularity throughout once you're elected.  It's indeed quite fascinating if you're not emotionally invested 

I mean, you have to visualize how this works, and how deeply personal it can be. 80% of the census for this election are Camp Nou ticket holders. So, you're president of Barça. Every weekend you sit on the presidential box - this is not some absentee owner that appoints some random dude to show his face and run the club. If you win, you're fine. If you lose and the fans blame the players or the manager, you're fine. But if they turn towards the presidential box and get their hankies out and calling your mother names, then you begin to sweat. Those are your voters, those are the guys that can kick you out. And there's also the local sports media, which are highly influential on your voters, and which are the closest thing Spain has to British tabloids in sensationalism and overall journalistic integrity. So you start doing increasingly desperate stuff to win voters back, like marquee signings that make no sense, like leaking shit to the press to both cultivate the loyalty of certain journalists and also influence the voters, or even go as far as Bartomeu did and hire a troll farm so voters go back to blame the players and managers. The whole thing can be a shit rollercoaster, but goddamn, why lie, I morbidly love it 

[Zanza]

One more exception in Germany is Dortmund, which is a publicly traded company which has no strong single owner. The original club only owns about 5% there.

[The Larch]

Or you can do like Florentino Pérez and make it so onerous for anybody else to become Real Madrid president that you are basically president for life by default. 

[Zanza]

Here is the German rule: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50%2B1_rule

[celedhring]

Or you can do like Florentino Pérez and make it so onerous for anybody else to become Real Madrid president that you are basically president for life by default. 

Yeah, I believe somebody did the research and only 2 other people in Spain met the requirements (in personal wealth and years of being a Real Madrid member) for becoming president of Real Madrid. 

[The Larch]

Or you can do like Florentino Pérez and make it so onerous for anybody else to become Real Madrid president that you are basically president for life by default. 

Yeah, I believe somebody did the research and only 2 other people in Spain met the requirements (in personal wealth and years of being a Real Madrid member) for becoming president of Real Madrid. 

Who was the other one?

[celedhring]

One was Villar Mir, the other I can't remember.

[The Larch]

One was Villar Mir, the other I can't remember.

It'd be quite fitting for Real Madrid to end up being the plaything of construction moguls. 

[celedhring]

Anyway, the who is who:

1 - Víctor Font, venture capitalist and local media "mogul" (we are a pretty small market). He would appoint Xavi as head of football. He polls at a distant #2, but he has hopes of concentrating the tactical vote against Laporta (who polls at #1 but is a very controversial figure). He had a bit of a gaffe early in the campaign where he wasn't assertive enough about extending Messi's contract, which is a capital sin (even though the sensible thing would be to let him walk).

2 - Antoni Freixa, lawyer. He was part of Bartomeu's board, but had the fortune of quitting before things went truly to shit, so he's managed to remain largely untainted by it. He polls at #3 and has no chance.

3 - Joan Laporta, lawyer. The big favorite. Boombastic, larger than life, certainly would bring entertainment off the pitch. He presided over the resurgence of the club in the 2000s, which is his biggest calling card for this election. He also has the fortune that Bartomeu's disastrous stewardship has made most voters forget about all the controversy and scandals that happened at the tail end of his own presidency (including claims that he cooked the books). Rumor has it that he would appoint Arteta as manager 

4 - Emili Rousaud, founder and CEO of an energy company. Also a former member of Bartomeu's board, he quit one year ago, so he's a bit more tainted than Freixa    He got past the first round but mysteriously quit the race a few weeks ago without giving reasons, although it probably was because he was polling a very distant #4 and both Font and Laporta were outspending the others by a big margin. He taught at my uni, and at the time his nickname among students was ironically "Zidane"

5 - Jordi Farré, entrepreneur and former porn producer (he was part of the boom of Catalan porn in the late 1990s). He didn't make the cut, but he did lead the motion of no confidence that ousted Bartomeu back in autumn. He was the most colorful candidate after Laporta, so he was a bit of a loss.

6 - Agustí Benedito, car dealership businessman. It's the third time he runs, and for a long time he was the sole opposition to Bartomeu. Yet the world is a cruel place and after he's proven right and the Bartomeu board collapses in ignominy, he doesn't even manage to get out of the first round.