Catalan sports paper Sport claims that former Barcelona vice-president Jaume Llauradó will particpate in the presidential elections in the summer but that he will only make his candidacy public at the very last moment because he doesn't want the elections to affect the team performances.Llauradó would be convinced that he will be able to collect the signatures of club members needed to take part in the final vote on 13 June, although the ex-director wouldn't exclude the option of joining another candidate and become that way a member of the future board.
Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Llauradó will certainly actively take part in the campaign but that he will only make a decision on his exact role - as part of a candidacy or as observer at the the sideline - when the elections are officially called some 40 days before the day of the vote.
The 65-year old Catalan businessman would nevertheless already been negotiating with Catalan advertising agent Fernando Martorell, the former president of Espanyol Barcelona, to take charge of his campaign if he would in the end decide to run for president.
Jaume Llauradó was a pre-candidate in the elections of 1997 and 2000, when he ended up joining the candidacy of the later president Joan Gaspart, in whose board Llauradó was a vice-president from 2000 until he resigned after one year because he didn't agree with the way the club was governed.
In 2003, he was a presidential candidate but finished 6th and last in the elections won by Joan Laporta. He obtained 987 votes (1,91%), which was considerably lower than the number of signatures he had been able to collect (read more here). Llauradó is also the president of FC Barcelona think tank Fòrum Samitier.
Read more:
Llaurado confirms that he will run
The Pundit: Miguel Rico on chances Guixa and Llaurado
Llaurado admits talks with Minguella and Rexach
