Barcelona presidential candidate: “To reduce costs we will talk to all the players, especially Messi” | OneFootball

The election to vote for a new club president on 7 March is dominating Barcelona news and the candidates are continuing to push their platform and ideas.

Joan Laporta and Victor Font are said to be the frontrunners for the vacancy, however Freixa is the third candidate on the ballot.

Carlos Tusquets is the current interim president of the Blaugrana following the resignation of former club supremo Josep Maria Bartomeu, with the elections suspended from their original schedulated date of 24 January.

Freixa, in quotes carried by Marca, has now outlined how he plan’s to tackle the club’s debt and alarming financial situation.

Read more: Barcelona on the verge of bankruptcy: €1,173m in debt, €730m in short-term

Of course, Freixa believes the contract and salary of Lionel Messi is an issue that must be immediately addressed, but it is not the only issue.

Freixa said: “Our candidacy has an upward trajectory and the other two, if they are not declining, are stagnant.

“Barça is the biggest club in the world and, despite the situation, we must be optimistic because it will move forward. But we are at a compromised moment that is given by two factors; a management that has mistaken the economic model and the pandemic.

“In 2010 we found a club with a very similar economic situation, because when there is another candidate who says that he will do it again, it may be better if he does not do it because there was no pandemic at that point. We managed to redirect the situation, reduce the debt and to win titles.

“We have a plan to reduce costs we will talk to all the players, especially Messi. He himself has already said that he is aware of the club’s situation and solutions must be sought until end of the pandemic.”

Freixa served on the board under former incumbents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu but left the board in 2015.

52-year-old Freixa, who is a lawyer by trade, finished bottom of the pile in the 2015 presidential elections at the club with just 3.7 percent of the vote – 1,750 votes – but is hopeful of building on that this time round.

Freixa has been criticised as a so-called continuity candidate of the previous boards whom he worked under, but he insisted he would be a break from those former presidents.