Official - Laporta Scrapes Through Censure Vote

With all votes counted, the "vote of no confidence" has ended in majority for those who sought to see Laporta removed from office, yet they did not win by a large enough margin to secure their goals.

The club's statutes require a 66% "yes" vote of no confidence to dislodge a board and president, with tonight's tally falling just short.

All 118,528 eligible club socios (members) were summoned to Camp Nou today to complete their ballot during the 9am-9pm window of opportunity, although a full turnout was obviously impossible.

As of 1pm, though, it was clear that the result would stand as the 10% turnout threshold had already been passed with fully eight hours remaining.

An early exit poll later indicated that Laporta had lost the popular vote but not fallen victim to the 66% allowance, and as the results were tallied this became confirmed.

39,389 votes were counted, surpassing the turnout estimate of 37,2394 that was produced at 23:50. The overall turnout, then, comprised 32.39% of those eligible to take part.

The final results as confirmed by FCBarcelona.com at 00:03 local time on Monday 7th July were as follows


Laporta, then, has saved his job, with Oriol Giralt's censure movement having technically failed.

Nonetheless the president's position will be significantly weakened after such a slim margin of victory, while attaining over 50% of the vote - even taking into account the turnout - will be seen as a minor success for Laporta's opponents.

The current regime are now free to continue with their summer plans as they look to rebuild the squad and put two barren seasons behind them.

Ewan Macdonald, Goal.com