Much-maligned Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu is facing increasing pressure after a campaign group announced they were racking up signatures in a bid to force a vote of no-confidence in him.
With Lionel Messi's aborted bid to leave Barcelona still raw, some campaigners are desperate to force Bartomeu out of the club.
'Mes que una mocio' (More than a motion), the group supported by candidates for next year's presidential election, said they had reached 7,500 club member signatures of the required 16,520 by September 17 to trigger a vote of no confidence in Bartomeu.
If the campaign reaches its target and the vote is held, two-thirds of the club's 150,000 members would have to vote against Bartomeu to trigger an imminent election.
Bartomeu, who cannot stand again as he has already served two terms, has called elections for March 2021, three months ahead of schedule, in the wake of the team's humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League in August.
The motion of censure was filed by presidential candidate Jordi Farre on August 26, the day after captain and all-time high scorer Messi sent the club an official notice saying that he wished to leave.
Messi told Barcelona that he wanted to leave last month, but has since been reported as saying he will stay because he did not want to face "the club I love" in court over his £624million release clause.
Barcelona posted a picture of Messi on Twitter on Monday evening showing the Argentinian back in action at the club's Ciutat Esportiva training ground. He had previously declined to take a routine coronavirus test as the rest of the squad began their pre-season just over a week ago
And La Liga president Javier Tebas has expressed his relief that Messi will remain at Barcelona this season after the forward finally returned to training..
"We were worried yes, but not seriously worried," said Tebas, speaking at La Liga's promotional launch for the 2020-21 campaign. "Obviously, we want Messi to be with us.
"I've always said, he's probably the best player in the history of football. He's been in our competition for 20 years.
"As the president of La Liga I would really like him to end his days in our competition.
"For 20 years in the history of La Liga we've had Lionel Messi and obviously we were worried if he was going to leave.
"But anyway, we're so pleased he's going to stay with us and not go to another league."
