One of the people rumoured to be a possible candidate in next year's elections for president of FC Barcelona is Jaume Llauradó, a 65-year old Catalan businessman who has already been involved in several presidential elections.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.
Catalan sports paper Sport claimed in September that Llauradó was seriously considering to run again for president, while Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claimed around the same time that he seemed ready to give it another try on his own.
Catalan sports paper El 9 Esportiu meanwhile claims that Llauradó, who could have been one of the people former players' agent and former presidential candidate Josep Maria Minguella has been holding talks with to try to form a candidacy (read more here), might soon announce that he wants to run, mainly to avoid a win of someone who has been part of the team of Barcelona president Joan Laporta.
Catalan sports weekly paper Gol claims that Llauradó would be willing to take part if Barcelona treasurer Xavier Sala i Martín would be a candidate, with Llauradó being rumoured to have said: "If he will run, I will run too, so I'll have the chance to say everything I want to say."
Llauradó may also be part of or support another candidacy that would in no case be the one supported by current president Laporta, because the former vice-president reportedly doesn't agree with the way Laporta would have introduced politics into the club.
Several people involved in the election campaign that were contacted by this blog said that they are unaware of a possible candidacy of Llauradó.
Read more:
Will former super-agent run for president?
Bassat will not run a third time
Former candidate Angel Fernandez will not run
