Ramon Adell, president of Barcelona's Managing Commission, announced on Wednesday that elections for the next club president will take place on Saturday 18th July.
Josep Maria Bartomeu stepped down as president yesterday ahead of the next elections although he has already confirmed that he intends on standing for re-election. Before leaving Bartomeu had a busy few days since the club won the Champions League in Berlin on Saturday evening. The club signed Aleix Vidal from Sevilla on Monday before announcing new contracts for manager Luis Enrique and defender Dani Alves on Tuesday as well as confirming various commercial deals although they have left an offer to extend the controversial sponsorship deal with Qatar Airways and that will now be one of the first decisions the next board will have to make.
Bartomeu and his board confirmed their resignations at a board meeting on Tuesday evening and handed power over to a Managing Commission which is made up of ten people from the old board, the Economic Commission and the Disciplinary Commission. Ramon Adell was nominated to be president of the Managing Commission and he will carry the role until the elections. In his first act as president Adell appeared at a press conference to discuss the timetable and procedures ahead of the elections in just under six weeks time.
Any prospective candidates must be able to get support slips signed by at least 2,534 club members and these must be presented two weeks before the election, on the 4th July. Once the candidates are confirmed there will be a week of campaigning from Thursday 9th July until Thursday 16th July ahead of a day of reflection on the Friday, followed by the elections on the Saturday. It was also announced that there will be a "Barca Festival" at the Nou Camp on the Saturday to attract more voters to come to the stadium.
Bartomeu has confirmed his intention to stand again and many fans will now look to see if former president Joan Laporta stands for a second term having previously held the post between 2003 and 2010. Other parties have declared they intend to stand but the first thing now will be to source out their level of support among members to see if they can get the 2534 support slips required.
2015 was a great year for Barcelona on the field but off the field it has been dogged by and the fans, members and staff will be hoping these elections bring stability as the club look to maintain their status as one of the giants of world football.