Barcelona restructure board after six resignations and confirm legal action against Emili Rousaud

Barcelona have announced major changes to their board

Barcelona have restructured the club's board after six directors resigned, and are taking legal action against former vice-president Emili Rousand for claims he made.

In a strongly-worded letter on Thursday, Rousand and fellow vice-president Enrique Tombas announced they were stepping down with four other directors - Silvio Elias, Maria Teixidor, Josep Pont and Jordi Calsamiglia.

Their actions have led to Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu remodelling the club's board.

Josep Maria Bartomeu has been Barcelona's president since 2014

A club statement read: "The Board of Directors have approved the appointment of Jordi Moix, as Vice President for Economics and Equity; Pau Vilanova, as institutional vice president; Oriol Tomas, as Vice President of the Commercial Area; Marta Plana, as Secretary of the Board of Directors; and David Bellver, as treasurer.

"Javier Bordas will be the manager responsible for the football first team, while Xavier Vilajoana will be in charge of Barca B, the youth teams and women's football.

"The executives responsible for the Compliance Committee will be the Secretary of the Board, Marta Plana, and the treasurer, David Bellver, while Joan Blad,e in addition to continuing to be responsible for the basketball teams, will be responsible for the Control and Transparency Committee."

The Spanish champions also intend to take legal action against Rousand after he said that somebody had been stealing money from within the club.

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Rousand made the claims to a Catalan radio station following accusations the club hired a company to make negative comments about its own players and opponents on social media in order to boost the image of senior club officials, which Barcelona strongly deny.

Monday's statement continued: "In the face of grave and unfounded allegations made by Mr Emili Rousaud, the club's former Vice President, in a number of media interviews, the Board of Directors categorically denies any action that could be described as corruption and have agreed to bring the corresponding criminal action accordingly.

"FC Barcelona cannot tolerate allegations that seriously damage the institution's image. The criminal action to be taken is in defence of the honour of the club and its employees. The existence of an ongoing audit must put an end to this matter."