Spaniard had backing of the players and Johan Cruyff’s widow, celebrating with a cigar in his favourite nightclub

Joan Laporta accompanied his players from the football pitch to the polling station, singing and winning all the way. From his seat high in tribuna, Barcelona’s outgoing president – who was about to become their incoming president – watched them beat Sevilla 5-2 and then headed back down to his place in the 995-capacity marquee outside the new Camp Nou. There, surrounded by cameras and positioned by table 11, he watched them help him defeat Victor Font even more comprehensively: 68.18% to 29.78%. It was a little before 7.30pm on election Sunday, still early, still not quite time to crack open the champagne or light up the cigar, but it was done. It had been from the start.

“We’re 100% focused on the game,” Hansi Flick had said before playing Sevilla this weekend, a line which seemed to set him and his players apart a little from everyone else in Catalonia, but once their primary duty had been fulfilled, his team victorious and four points clear again, they could complete another. Standing there with his passport in hand and Laporta helping ensure he was passed the correct slip, the coach slotted a little white envelope into the box. And then, his vote cast in Barcelona’s 2026 presidential elections, another new experience embraced here, Laporta took his arm, raised it like a prizefighter, the identification complete, and began a chant: “Hansi Flick! Hansi Flick!”

Spaniard had backing of the players and Johan Cruyff’s widow, celebrating with a cigar in his favourite nightclub

Joan Laporta accompanied his players from the football pitch to the polling station, singing and winning all the way. From his seat high in tribuna, Barcelona’s outgoing president – who was about to become their incoming president – watched them beat Sevilla 5-2 and then headed back down to his place in the 995-capacity marquee outside the new Camp Nou. There, surrounded by cameras and positioned by table 11, he watched them help him defeat Victor Font even more comprehensively: 68.18% to 29.78%. It was a little before 7.30pm on election Sunday, still early, still not quite time to crack open the champagne or light up the cigar, but it was done. It had been from the start.

“We’re 100% focused on the game,” Hansi Flick had said before playing Sevilla this weekend, a line which seemed to set him and his players apart a little from everyone else in Catalonia, but once their primary duty had been fulfilled, his team victorious and four points clear again, they could complete another. Standing there with his passport in hand and Laporta helping ensure he was passed the correct slip, the coach slotted a little white envelope into the box. And then, his vote cast in Barcelona’s 2026 presidential elections, another new experience embraced here, Laporta took his arm, raised it like a prizefighter, the identification complete, and began a chant: “Hansi Flick! Hansi Flick!”

Spaniard had backing of the players and Johan Cruyff’s widow, celebrating with a cigar in his favourite nightclub

Joan Laporta accompanied his players from the football pitch to the polling station, singing and winning all the way. From his seat high in tribuna, Barcelona’s outgoing president – who was about to become their incoming president – watched them beat Sevilla 5-2 and then headed back down to his place in the 995-capacity marquee outside the new Camp Nou. There, surrounded by cameras and positioned by table 11, he watched them help him defeat Victor Font even more comprehensively: 68.18% to 29.78%. It was a little before 7.30pm on election Sunday, still early, still not quite time to crack open the champagne or light up the cigar, but it was done. It had been from the start.

“We’re 100% focused on the game,” Hansi Flick had said before playing Sevilla this weekend, a line which seemed to set him and his players apart a little from everyone else in Catalonia, but once their primary duty had been fulfilled, his team victorious and four points clear again, they could complete another. Standing there with his passport in hand and Laporta helping ensure he was passed the correct slip, the coach slotted a little white envelope into the box. And then, his vote cast in Barcelona’s 2026 presidential elections, another new experience embraced here, Laporta took his arm, raised it like a prizefighter, the identification complete, and began a chant: “Hansi Flick! Hansi Flick!”

The PM’s decision not to sign up the UK to the Middle East conflict reflects the public mood better than Badenoch and Farage’s former gung-ho support

It was a message that could just as easily have been given via a ministerial statement in the Commons. But Keir Starmer needs every break he can get at the moment and he wasn’t going to pass up the chance to look like a world leader at a press conference in Downing Street. The advantages were obvious. No need to have to listen to Kemi Badenoch drone on for five minutes with her revisionist fantasies in reply. Avoid the danger of loads of backbench MPs observing that President Trump is a deranged halfwit who doesn’t know what he’s doing.

But best of all a press conference was ideal because the American war with Iran is one of the few occasions when the prime minister’s judgement has been right all along. Just over two weeks in and it’s increasingly looking like the The Donald is only in the war for its entertainment value. Just last weekend, he was saying he might continue bombing Kharg Island for fun. For the lols and social media hits. There has never been a plan or a goal in mind. Not so long ago he was saying the Brits were late to the party and he didn’t need them anyway. Now he is begging for help in keeping open the strait of Hormuz .

The PM’s decision not to sign up the UK to the Middle East conflict reflects the public mood better than Badenoch and Farage’s former gung-ho support

It was a message that could just as easily have been given via a ministerial statement in the Commons. But Keir Starmer needs every break he can get at the moment and he wasn’t going to pass up the chance to look like a world leader at a press conference in Downing Street. The advantages were obvious. No need to have to listen to Kemi Badenoch drone on for five minutes with her revisionist fantasies in reply. Avoid the danger of loads of backbench MPs observing that President Trump is a deranged halfwit who doesn’t know what he’s doing.

But best of all a press conference was ideal because the American war with Iran is one of the few occasions when the prime minister’s judgement has been right all along. Just over two weeks in and it’s increasingly looking like the The Donald is only in the war for its entertainment value. Just last weekend, he was saying he might continue bombing Kharg Island for fun. For the lols and social media hits. There has never been a plan or a goal in mind. Not so long ago he was saying the Brits were late to the party and he didn’t need them anyway. Now he is begging for help in keeping open the strait of Hormuz .

The PM’s decision not to sign up the UK to the Middle East conflict reflects the public mood better than Badenoch and Farage’s former gung-ho support

It was a message that could just as easily have been given via a ministerial statement in the Commons. But Keir Starmer needs every break he can get at the moment and he wasn’t going to pass up the chance to look like a world leader at a press conference in Downing Street. The advantages were obvious. No need to have to listen to Kemi Badenoch drone on for five minutes with her revisionist fantasies in reply. Avoid the danger of loads of backbench MPs observing that President Trump is a deranged halfwit who doesn’t know what he’s doing.

But best of all a press conference was ideal because the American war with Iran is one of the few occasions when the prime minister’s judgement has been right all along. Just over two weeks in and it’s increasingly looking like the The Donald is only in the war for its entertainment value. Just last weekend, he was saying he might continue bombing Kharg Island for fun. For the lols and social media hits. There has never been a plan or a goal in mind. Not so long ago he was saying the Brits were late to the party and he didn’t need them anyway. Now he is begging for help in keeping open the strait of Hormuz .

Carlson in video claims the CIA is preparing a ‘crime report’ against him and alleges US agencies have read his texts

Tucker Carlson , the conservative US political commentator, has publicly expressed fear that he may be facing criminal charges for “acting as an agent of a foreign power” by communicating with people in Iran.

The former CNN and Fox News host, who has established an alternative media career as online talking head and interviewer, claimed in a video posted on X that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was preparing “a crime report” for the Trump administration’s justice department.

Carlson in video claims the CIA is preparing a ‘crime report’ against him and alleges US agencies have read his texts

Tucker Carlson , the conservative US political commentator, has publicly expressed fear that he may be facing criminal charges for “acting as an agent of a foreign power” by communicating with people in Iran.

The former CNN and Fox News host, who has established an alternative media career as online talking head and interviewer, claimed in a video posted on X that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was preparing “a crime report” for the Trump administration’s justice department.

Carlson in video claims the CIA is preparing a ‘crime report’ against him and alleges US agencies have read his texts

Tucker Carlson , the conservative US political commentator, has publicly expressed fear that he may be facing criminal charges for “acting as an agent of a foreign power” by communicating with people in Iran.

The former CNN and Fox News host, who has established an alternative media career as online talking head and interviewer, claimed in a video posted on X that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was preparing “a crime report” for the Trump administration’s justice department.