FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta has been discharged from the Hospital de Barcelona after suffering a cardiac arrhythmia, with the episode successfully resolved by the medical team led by Dr. Jordi Morillas. El País, reporting through journalist Ramon Besa, confirmed the news after Laporta himself announced his condition and recovery via a statement on social media on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 28.
Laporta confirmed the arrhythmia had been reversed and that his heart had returned to a normal rhythm, expressing particular gratitude to the medical staff and nursing personnel at the Hospital de Barcelona, as well as to the club’s own medical services. While the acute episode has been resolved, doctors have advised the 64-year-old president against taking any flights in the coming days as a precautionary measure.
The no-fly restriction carries immediate practical consequences for the club’s pre-season programme. Laporta will not travel to England to join the squad, which began its pre-season work in St. George on Monday, and will also miss Friday’s friendly against Birmingham. In his absence, vice-president Rafa Yuste becomes the club’s maximum authority for the duration of the England stay.
Yuste will also preside over Wednesday’s board meeting, at which the date of the next Extraordinary Assembly of Club Members is set to be announced.
This is not Laporta’s first health setback during his current presidency. The El País report noted that three years ago he was diagnosed with a thrombosis in one leg, which kept him from travelling for several months. The timing of the latest episode comes shortly after a busy spell of public engagements: Laporta had attended the presentations of Adeyemi and Van Asten, as well as the contract renewals of Graham Hansen and Marta Torrejón, and had only recently returned from the United States, where he watched Spain win the World Cup – a tournament in which eight Blaugrana players featured for the champions.
