FC Barcelona’s president on Tuesday denounced a “slander campaign” against the club, which was rocked two months ago by a football arbitration scandal, assuring that the Catalan entity “never did anything to gain sporting advantages”.
FC Barcelona has never had “the intention of distorting competition,” Joan Laporta said at a press conference addressing a case of alleged payments to a former referee.
Laporta commented that “the club didn’t have the capacity to appoint referees”, so “it couldn’t change the sporting results”.
In March, FC Barcelona, several of its former managers and the former head of the referee José Negreira were charged with corruption, breach of trust and false business records, in a case involving large payments to the former football referee.
The Public Prosecution Service has filed a formal complaint with the Court of Instruction Number 1 of Barcelona against the club, as a legal entity, as well as against its former presidents, namely Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell.
The case arose following investigations launched by Barcelona’s public prosecutor’s office about a year ago, which revealed that between 2001 and 2001 the former head of Spain’s arbitration received nearly €7 million through a company for alleged oral advice to the club. 2018.
This case, in which the Catalan club is constantly linked to the crime of corporate corruption, was merged with another, following a complaint filed in recent weeks by former referee and current video referee Estrada Fernández against Negreira and the company Dasnil 95, for sports corruption.
Alleged tax irregularities committed by Negreira’s company exposed in May 2022 the payments received by the former vice president of the Technical Commission of Arbitrators.
According to the Spanish court, Barcelona maintained “a strictly confidential oral agreement” with José Negreira, so that he “carried out actions in exchange for money to favor Barcelona in the decision-making of the referees” in their matches.
Source: DN
