Chaos at Barcelona: 25 members have left Laporta’s board in the last three years

Joan Laporta has completed three years in his second tenure as the president of FC Barcelona and it has been far from smooth sailing.

After all, the Blaugrana have been mired in financial issues while success on the sporting front has also been limited.

During his three-year stint, Laporta has brought about several changes not only at the team level, but in the club’s board as well.

25 people have left the Barcelona board

Indeed, since Laporta returned as president back in 2021, there have been as many as 25 board members have stepped down from their roles, which does raise some concern about the way things are being run.

It all started with the removal of David Barrufet as the General Manager of the Handball team in May 2021, after 37 years at the club.

A couple of months later, Guillem Graell (Brand Area Director) and Jordi Camps (Commercial Director) were shown the doors by Laporta’s administration.

Following that, one of the most notable exits came to be as Ramon Planes stepped down from the role of the Technical Secretary with the likes of Mateu Alemany and Jordi Cruyff assuming greater power.

Along with Planes, Barça also parted ways with Enric Llopart, Ferran Lopez, Xavier Martin, and Carlos Folguera in the month of November 2021.

Ferran Reverter then stepped down from the role of the CEO in February 2022, just before the announcement of the Spotify deal citing personal reasons.

Alemany has been one of the most notable exits from Laporta’s board. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

A month later, Juan Manuel Tabero and Xavier Mas were shown the doors by the Laporta administration, while Ramon Ramírez, José Manuel Lázaro, and Toni Ruiz also moved on before the end of the year.

Lluís Miquel Venteo, the former security director, moved on in May 2023 before Jordi Cruyff also decided to step away in the same month after his contract with the club expired.

Soon after, Jordi Llaurado, the ex-director of the Espai Barça project departed before Mateu Alemany stepped away only a couple of months after having made a U-turn on his decision to leave for Aston Villa.

Markel Zubizarreta then stepped down from the position of the Director of the Women’s Football team in September last year. It was followed by the exit of Àlex Barbany (Espai Barça Operations Director).

Raül Cabrera and Mike Puig departed in January this year while Franc Carbó stepped away in February, along with Maribel Meléndez.

Xavier Budo became the latest member to resign, on Thursday, June 6, days before the handball section was crowned European champion in Cologne.