“We’ll finish off our term of office with coherence and responsibility”
Vanessa Forns
On confirmation that the vote of censure had been unsuccessful, Joan Laporta has confirmed that his Board of Directors wish to finish their term of office in 2010 “with coherence, because we’re legitimate and with a sense of responsibility”.
The President of FC Barcelona has appeared before the press after an intense day of voting in order
to evaluate the result. Despite the ‘yes’ vote for the censure motion being the choice
of the majority (60.60%), it didn’t reach the 66.6% required by the Statutes in order to be
successful.
Given this situation, Joan Laporta affirmed that he along with his colleagues, the
Board of Directors –who accompanied him and sat in the first two rows of the Camp Nou’s
pressroom- will finish their term of office “with cohesion, because we’re legitimate
and with a sense of responsibility”.
Conformity with the “protest votes”
Despite everything, Joan Laporta has made it very clear that he understands the outcome of
this vote of censure process as “a protest vote for what we have done during the last two
years”, and assured that the Board of Directors “will act accordingly to calm the
situation”. In this way, the president has highlighted the importance of “recovering
stability”.
Renewed illusion
“We’ll have to work hard to gain the confidence of those members who didn’t
trust us”, he added. Laporta pointed out that the Board of Directors he presides have
“had their illusion renewed”, and that he is deeply convinced that “the sports
project will help to regain the confidence of those members’ who are disappointed”.
A reinforced Barça
Barcelona’s president, who explained that none of the directors had resigned, was
especially happy, as this Sunday “was an exemplary democratic exercise” from which FC
Barcelona “has come out reinforced as a democratic institution”.
Thanks
It should be emphasised how, at the beginning of his speech, Joan Laporta had some
words of thanks for all the members of the club: “I wish to express my profound respect for
the almost 24 thousand members who voted in favour of the censure. Also those who voted against it
and the 80 thousand others who considered that they didn’t have to join in”.
At the same time he praised
Oriol Giralt, the member who called for the vote of censure, “for his conduct after the result”.
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“We have to seek harmony through our love of FC Barcelona”
Joan Laporta insisted especially on the idea of “looking for harmony through our love of FC
Barcelona”. The president, who insisted that he, along with his colleagues on the Board will
take a serious look at the result of the vote of censure to analyse the mistakes they made, he
expressed his desire aloud: “We offer our hands and hope they will take them and that we can
walk together”.
On the other hand, Barcelona’s president played down some people’s demonstrations
aimed at him: “I’m very pleased because it has been a day for democracy. Some people
chose to shout, but they were in the minority”.