Barca boss survives vote of confidence

BARCELONA president Joan Laporta has survived a vote of confidence and will remain in office until 2010.

Fans, disgruntled following a second straight season without silverware, headed to the polls after club member Oriol Giralt collected the 5882 member signatures required to request a referendum on the Barca presidency.

Two-thirds of supporters were required to vote 'yes' in order to force Laporta, who has been president since 2003 and was re-elected in 2006, out of the Nou Camp and a minimum of ten per cent of the club's members were required to vote.

That number – 15,184 – was achieved around lunchtime, with a total of 37,294 members turning out to cast their ballot.

The majority – 23,870 (60.6 per cent) – voted in favour, but short of the 66 per cent that the statute requires for the vote of censure to be successful.

Almost 15,000 members (37.75 per cent) voted for Laporta, with the remainder either invalid or blank votes.