Summoning the press for the first time since the club was indicted in an arbitration scandal, FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta denied on Monday any attempt at cheating by the club, denouncing a “smear campaign”. Barça “has never carried out any action with the final objective or intention of modifying the competition with a view to obtaining any sporting advantage,” Laporta told reporters at the Catalan club’s headquarters.
“I invite you to tell me which goal, which match, which suspicious action” could have been the result of a rigging attempt and “when there was an arbitral advantage” for the benefit of FC Barcelona, insisted the president of the blaugrana club, offensive in the face of accusations against Barça. FC Barcelona has been in turmoil since the revelation in early February by the Spanish media of suspicious money payments made to companies owned by the former No.2 in Spanish arbitration, José Maria Enriquez Negreira. These revelations led the Spanish courts to indict the Catalan club and its former presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu (2014-2020) and Sandro Rosell (2010-2014) in mid-March for “corruption between individuals in the sports sector”, “breach of trust and “false in trade records”.
According to the prosecution, the Catalan club paid more than 7.3 million euros to Mr Negreira between 2001 and 2018, in exchange for advice on arbitration matters – payments which would have been interrupted when Mr Negreira left his duties within the Spanish Technical Arbitral Committee (CTA). Barça “has concluded and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement” with Negreira “so that in his capacity as vice-president of the CTA and in exchange for money, he carries out actions tending to favor” the club and therefore “the results competitions”, assured the prosecution in a court document.
Charges dismissed on Monday by Joan Laporta, for whom FC Barcelona, despite these contracts, has never been able to “appoint referees and therefore alter the sporting results” of the Catalan club, victim according to him of a “ smear campaign.
According to the president of Barça, the Spanish tax authorities themselves underlined, in a report sent to justice, not having “been able to demonstrate that the payments made to companies” by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira “could have influenced the referees or on the outcome of any match. “They could not demonstrate it because it was not possible,” insisted Mr Laporta, assuring that the services for which the club had made payments were legal and documented. The president of FC Barcelona said he relied on the conclusions of an internal investigation, entrusted to the firm KPMG, according to which “no action of a criminal nature and linked to the offense of sports corruption has been identified”.
According to the report, the payments were made for “sports advisory services, advice on recruitment and refereeing, which are common in professional sport”, and depended on the number of competitions that were analysed, added Mr Laporta.
“There was no corruption offence”, he insisted, without excluding that people outside the club could have taken advantage of this situation “to behave irregularly”, but “for their benefit” and not to that of the club.
Denouncing an “orchestrated campaign to destroy the reputation of FC Barcelona”, Mr. Laporta specified that he had taken legal action “against those who damaged the honor of the club”, openly criticizing Real Madrid and the president of LaLiga Javier Tebas , who repeatedly asked for explanations about the case.
“I would like the president of LaLiga to contain this verbal incontinence”, attacked Mr. Laporta, saying he was also convinced that Barça would not be sanctioned by UEFA, which has opened an investigation into a “possible violation of the framework legal” by the Catalan club.
“I am convinced that this will not happen, it would be an unprecedented event and with a club of the level of FC Barcelona”, he declared, ruling out any risk for his club of being excluded from the Champions League .
