Vote in the FC Barcelona Presidential Election!

[Sheilbh]

I went and got a haircut yesterday.  First since mid-November.  It feels glorious!

Depending on what's going on with my fringe I either have very long curtains or, like Gabrielle, can only see out of one eye

I cannot wait for barbers to re-open (I have a Turkish colleague who tells me that there's an underground network of Turkish barbers that are still open but apparently only for fellow Turks ).

[Valmy]

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).

See I thought he was some kind of Tech magnate who was going to replace all your players with robots, hence why I voted for him.

[celedhring]

I think he has some investments in tech, he's probably the most influential of the lot, as businessman. He's not a billionaire or anything though, all the candidates are relatively small potatoes in the Catalan business scene. Since Nuñez (who also ended in jail  ) in the 1980s-1990s we haven't had any of the big fish running for president of Barça.

Funnily, Espanyol have had a longer list of truly wealthy/influential presidents/owners.

[celedhring]

Polling stations have closed. Turnout is 55%, the Catalan election of a month ago was 52% (on a census 50 times larger, but still  ).

Exit polls (because of course we have exit polls for this), have Laporta winning in a landslide (58% vs 31% for Font). Will update after the final count.

[celedhring]

So, Barça's financial situation is so dire, that Laporta and his incoming board are having trouble securing the bank guarantees required by law. They need to raise €126 million to cover possible losses during their administration. There's talk he's going to have to essentially "sell" a VP chair to some rich Catalan businessman that can provide the needed backing.