The Barcelona club president Josep Maria Bartomeu has resigned from his post due to the ongoing criticism and chances of him going through a vote of no confidence. Alongwith him the entire board is also stepping down from their positions.

Josep joined Barca during Joan Laporta’s presidency, and he became the president in January 2014.

The resignation has come after Josep has been facing an ongoing criticism about Barcelona’s 8-2 defeat and elimination from Champions League, including Lionel Messi’s appalling request to leave the club, which did not materialise but Josep has been under scrutiny for a while.

The presidents tenure was officially to end in 2021 and the elections have been scheduled for March, however, to remove Josep earlier a vote of no confidence had been called by club members. 20,687 votes were gathered for the motion against Josep, crossing the mark of 16,250 signatures required to move the vote to go ahead. The Barcelona board repeatedly tried to suspend or delay the vote but, on Monday, the local authorities rejected the boards efforts to delay the proceedings.