The Catalan football clubs have voted for the continuity of the Board of Directors of the Catalan Football Federation. John Soteras will continue as president of the federal body, a position he has held since 2018, after winning the repeat elections, with 503 votes and 57.62% support, a Juanjo Isern (335) i Pep Palacios (12).
As already happened in the previous elections of May 2022, which the Catalan Sports Court (TCE) ordered to repeat after detecting 175 irregular votes, during the election day there were controversy between the candidates: Isern has denounced irregularities in the voting, although once the final results were known, he tweeted to congratulate Soteras “for the electoral victory”.
We won by a margin and we showed that Catalan football wants us to rule it
For his part, the highest representative made the following assessment to the Federation’s media upon learning of the favorable results of the elections: “We won by a landslide and, therefore, we demonstrate that Catalan football wants us to rule it. The clubs agree with us to be able to work again and keep removing corruption that existed within Catalan football. There must be seriousness, cleanliness and transparency”, said Soteras.
At the same time, he explained that he was “clear” that he would win “by a significant amount of difference votes (168)”: “I expected a big difference because we worked well”. While talking about the future of the Federation: “Nine months ago we started developing our electoral competition plan: with the new Superliga, subsidies for Catalan football… Everything is underway. We have repeated an election that they should never have been repeatedbut we must be respectful of the TCE”.
During the election day, the Twitter account of Isern’s candidacy published this complaint: “Intervenors who are members of Joan Soteras’ candidacy are giving notarial acts to the clubs at the door of the street and up to the hall itself.” With regard to Isern’s position, Soteras has been harsh with his rival who has had a “tantrum for not knowing how to lose and wanted to enter the Federation through the back door”. “It has returned to us any Donald Trump who wants to enter the Federation by repeating elections again and again”, he said.
One of Soteras’ objectives in this mandate that is beginning is to be able to carry out the initiatives that his board of directors did not complete due to the coronavirus pandemic and the beginning of the dialogue with the Spanish Football Federation for the construction of a Catalan sports city.