Eight Barca members resign over Laporta

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) -- Nearly half of Barcelona's 17-member board of directors have resigned in protest over club president Joan Laporta's refusal to step down following his defeat in a vote of confidence.

The club's official Web site said vice president Albert Vicens and seven others had resigned after a four-hour board meeting. Vicens said the resignations were due to "discrepancies over the way to act following Sunday's vote."

"We wanted a change following the vote but the president did not agree," said Vicens.

The eight who resigned, apart from Vicens, include the sports vice-president Marc Ingla and the finance vice-president Ferran Soriano.

The five others are Antoni Rovira, Claudia Vives-Fierro, Evarist Murtra, Xavier Cambra and Josep Lluis Vilaseca.

Laporta will have to appoint replacements for the eight, since the board must have at least 14 members for its decisions to be valid.

He lost Sunday's vote of confidence but his opponents, while garnering 60 per cent of the vote, were six per cent off the minimum required to force his resignation.

Laporta, who said he has no intention of stepping down, has been supported in recent days by former Barcelona stars Johan Cruyff and Hristo Stoichkov. However, the 45-year-old lawyer has grown increasingly unpopular with supporters annoyed by Barcelona's failure to win a major trophy in the past two years.

He responded last month by firing coach Frank Rijkaard and replacing him with Pep Guardiola, a former team captain who looked after the reserve team.

Barcelona have revamped their squad with leading players Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto'o expected to follow Deco, Edmilson, Giovani Dos Santos and Gianluca Zambrotta out of the club this summer.

Meanwhile, Sevilla midfielder Seydou Keita and right-back Daniel Alves, Manchester United defender Gerard Pique and Villarreal left-back Martin Caceres have all moved to the Nou Camp.

Laporta took charge with an election victory in 2003 and then won a second election unchallenged three years later.

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