Barcelona presidential election turns nasty as candidate compares Joan Laporta to Donald Trump

Martin Macdonald

• 25 Feb 2026 06:01 CST
• 4 min read

Nieuws

As we approach the Barcelona presidential election next month, things are starting to get personal between the candidates.

At the moment, there is no sitting president at Barcelona after Joan Laporta and select members of the board resigned from their posts. They aren't leaving - this simply needs to happen in order for them to be eligible for re-election.

Looking to take over from Laporta are Victor Font, Xavi Vilajoana and Marc Ciria, all of whom have been on the campaign trail making promises about the future of Barcelona.

They have all also pointed out the flaws of Laporta whenever they can. In fact, Font recently compared Laporta to United States President Donald Trump.

“Laporta lives in a parallel reality. Each day that passes, he resembles Trump more," he said in an interview on RAC1.

"There are more and more parallels between Trumpism and what’s happening around Laporta.”

Font's jibe comes just a few days after serious accusations were made against Laporta. The two-time Barcelona president is being accused of taking “undue commissions” via a network of companies based in Spain, Cyprus, Dubai, Croatia and Estonia.

A report published in El Periodico claimed that Laporta has been subject to a complaint filed in the duty court of the Central Court of Instance of the National Court in Madrid late on Friday night.

The allegations surround a number of commercial deals made by the Blaugrana in recent years, including the club’s Nike sponsorship agreement and the costly renovation of Camp Nou.

Barcelona have moved to dismiss these claims out of hand via an official statement that claims the information was “false or highly manipulated”.

Barcelona's early election

Laporta was previously criticised for calling the 2026 elections early this year.

Usually, elections at Spanish clubs come at the end of the season when the dust has settled from the previous campaign.

His rivals believe that he has called the election early because Barcelona are performing well on the pitch at the moment, top of La Liga and qualified from the Champions League league phase, while they recently defeated Real Madrid to win the Spanish Supercup.

Funnily enough, after the election was confirmed, Barca had a bit of a wobble and lost top spot in La Liga to Real Madrid, though they have since earned it back.

Ciria told SPORT: "We had already planned that Laporta was going to take advantage of any opportunistic moment to call the elections. We understand that the statutes provided for it, but the normal thing was to do it with the season over and with the different teams fighting for the titles not seen in this noise."

Font added: "It is obvious that these elections are called when it suits Laporta. He doesn’t care about holding elections in the middle of a Champions League tie. But we were already expecting it, we are not surprised. We are prepared. These are very important elections for the future of Barca. The time begins to return Barca to the members.

"Of course, if March 15 finally coincides with a match against Sevilla, we demand that on that day the match be exclusively for members and that tickets are at the minimum cost. Participation must be encouraged and those who do not have season tickets cannot be discriminated against."

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