Joan Laporta remains in pole position to be re-elected as Barcelona President for a fourth term in the upcoming elections, as candidates present signatures to be nominated for the final vote. The elections are set to take place on the 15th of March, with Laporta the heavy favourite to remain in power after his five-year mandate.
Candidates who wish to present themselves for the elections must present 2,337 signatures from club members, in this case the electorate, in order to be considered as candidates. The deadline to do so was Monday.
Laporta leads the way with signatures
The former Barcelona President Laporta presented a total of 8,169 signatures at the club offices, as per Marca. He has presented the most thus far, followed by Victor Font, who is considered his biggest challenger, as was the case in 2021. Former manager and player Xavi Hernandez has thrown his support behind Font, who submitted 5,144 signatures, 3,031 less than Laporta.
They were folllowed by Marc Ciria (2,844 signatures) and Xavier Vilajoana (1,593 signatures), with the latter unable to compete in the final vote as things stand.
Comparison with 2021 Barcelona elections
It is a significant shift from the previous edition of the election process though, where Laporta had 10,257 signatures, 2,086 less than in 2021. In addition, Font has increased his support by 713.
🚨 Ferran Olivé (treasurer in Laporta’s board): “We are about to have a stadium of 105,000 spectators and we are about to have an income of more than 400 million. This is what will be the solution of Barça of the future.” [@culemanias] pic.twitter.com/n3LVwHRS7F
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) March 2, 2026
Could a coalition threaten Laporta?
Meanwhile there has been talk that some of the other candidates could launch a joint campaign depending on the results of the signature collection. So far Ciria and Vilajoana have publicly rejected the idea of a coalition, despite reports they have held talks with Font over doing so. The latter has declared he is open to the idea, and the sum of all three candidates is 9,905 signatures, 734 more than Laporta. The favourite responded with the following statement.
“We see no loss of confidence whatsoever. We greatly value the signatures, even more so than in 2021 because there was much greater mobilization then. The club was in a more complicated situation. There’s a feeling among Barcelona fans that we’ve already got it made, but 8,171 members understood that, even though the polls show us as favorites, they had to make an effort to make us a viable candidacy,” Laporta told Sport.
