Barcelona president Joan Laporta survived a vote
of confidence on Sunday night and will remain in office until
2010.
Fans, disgruntled following a second straight season without
silverware, headed to the polls after club member Oriol Giralt
collected the 5,882 member signatures required to request a
referendum on the presidency.
Two thirds of supporters were required to vote 'yes' in order to
force Laporta, who has been president since 2003 and was re-elected
in 2006, out of the Nou Camp and a minimum of 10% of the club's
members were required to vote.
That number - 15,184 - was achieved around lunchtime, with a
total of 37,294 members turning out to cast their ballot.
The majority - 23,870 (60.6%) - voted in favour but short of the
66% that the statute requires for the vote of censure to be
successful.
Almost 15,000 members (37.75%) voted for Laporta, with the
remainder either invalid or blank votes.