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Rosell to stand for Barcelona re-election

Sandro Rosell was elected in 2010 © Getty Images

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Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has announced that he intends to run for a second term.

Rosell, first elected to the post in 2010, made the announcement at a meeting of senior club members [socios] at the Camp Nou on Thursday. He hailed the progress he and the current board had made and detailed the work that lay ahead.

"It is in my intention to present myself for re-election in 2016, to ask the socios to again give us their confidence to complete making good the challenges we still face," he said.

"Among us all, we must build the future that Barca deserves, we must keep being a club that stands out for its style of play, its management, its values and that is concerned with its country.

"We want to keep growing, and we are on a good path. We are full of excitement for the present and the future that awaits us."

The former Nike executive mentioned a number of challenges which he hoped to help the Catalan club overcome during the remainder of his present term and into a future one.

"We must keep watering the garden at La Masia [the club's youth academy], keep backing a model of play which maintains sporting excellence, work to strengthen our finances and offer our socios the best proposals to have a stadium at the standard of our team. These challenges for the future excite us a lot."

Cutting the club's debt from €431 million when he arrived to the current €298 million had been a major achievement of his term to date, Rosell said.

"We inherited a very delicate situation and we guaranteed part of the budget with our own personal resources," he said. "This year we are on a good path, but our challenge remains to reduce the debt."

There was less discussion of more controversial issues currently facing the Barca board, such as the €23 million a Spanish court has ruled it can claim from previous club president Joan Laporta or the revelations that Rosell had recently rekindled the club's relationship with previously banned Boixos Nois ultras.

However, those socios present were assured that the club's annual membership fees would not be increased between now and the 2016 poll.

"The fees will not rise in what is left of my term," Rosell said. "We must keep working together to continue being the best club in the world."

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