Yahoo Sport 
Joan Laporta elected FC Barcelona president for the second time
Joan Laporta has been elected as the new president of Barcelona, returning to the role he previously held at the Spanish giants between 2003 and 2010.
On Sunday night, Barcelona confirmed Laporta had won an unassailable 57.6 per cent of votes of 96 per cent counted. Victor Font (31.7%) was second, while Toni Freixa (9.2%) finished third.
Three presidential candidates had been vying to lift Barcelona from one of its worst crisis in recent memory.
Former president Laporta, businessman Font and longtime board member Freixa were among the more than 110,000 members who were eligible to vote in the election being held just days after the club’s last elected president - Josep Maria Bartomeu - spent a night in jail while Catalan police investigated possible irregularities during his administration.
Lionel Messi was among the players to vote, with the club published a photo of their Argentine talisman casting his ballot on Sunday morning.
Laporta’s victory for a five-year term caps a week in which the club made worldwide headlines after a police raid at the team’s headquarters led to arrests and further embarrassment for an institution that has long prided itself as “more than a club.”
The police investigation was related to the so-called “Barcagate,” which involved allegations that the former executive board hired an internet services company to spread negative messages about its own players and opponents on social media to boost the image of senior club officials.
The presidential election was originally scheduled for the end of January but was postponed because of the pandemic.
The elections were called after Bartomeu and his board resigned in October facing a possible no-confidence referendum by club members angry about the team’s trophy-less 2019/20 season — the first since 2007/08.
The season ended in a humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.This term, Barca have qualified for the Copa del Rey final and sit second in LaLiga.
Laporta will face daunting problems that include the possible departure of Messi at the end of the season and a debt of more than 1 billion euros brought on in large part by the coronavirus pandemic but also by one of the highest wage bills in the game.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
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