Barcelona are set to be embroiled in legal battles for some time by the looks of things, with the Caso Negreira unlikely to be solved any time soon.
The Blaugrana are accused of bribery alongside former presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, while Joan Laporta will also join them at the stand it was revealed this week.
Laporta has told Barcelona fans that they can relax, expressing confidence that the case would be archived, and dismissing the allegations against himself as baseless.
As pointed out by Jordi Marti on Cadena SER, it has given rise to a rather incredible statistic. Democratic Spain, as in, since General Franco’s dictatorship ended, has never seen a Barcelona president that has not been jailed, convicted or investigated for crimes, with the bow of Laporta.
Spain held its first democratic elections in over four decades in 1979, three years after Franco died. Jose Luis Nunez came into Barcelona’s hot seat in 1978, and remained until 2000. He was convicted and sentenced to six years in jail for tax fraud amongst his multi-million business empire.
Joan Gaspart, his successor from 2000 to 2003, was also convicted of fraud to the tune of €15m in league with a Saudi Arabian prince, which led to the bankruptcy of his luxury hotel chain. Gaspart was ordered to pay €579k in compensation just two weeks ago, and barred from further business activities for a further six years.
Rosell spent two years in prison for tax fraud too, regarding the transfer of Neymar Junior to Barcelona. He was later acquitted, due to a lack of proof.
Meanwhile Josep Maria Bartomeu is currently being investigated for his role in ‘Barcagate’ – launching a personal publicity campaign using club funds, it is suspected that he also inflated these payments to common interest businesses, and divided payments so as to avoid internal financial controls.
Laporta now joins this list of infamy for the Negreira case, although he appears relaxed about these allegations. La Liga President Javier Tebas has stated on the other hand that he is confident Laporta will face action from the justice system.
Pointed this out long time ago.
Si señor.
It is common knowledge here in Spain.
Problemo is, Fc Barcelona are too much of an institution with financial muscle that can sue journalists that ask too uncomfortable questions and write articles.
It was a unspoken secret that sr Laporta threatened journalists with lawsuits to stay out of his business untill he himself recently made that secret public.
Not unlike a mafioso strongarming others who aren’t “listening”. Now that this case is out in the open and he will answer for his eventual crimes, expect more dirty laundry to be aired by the ketchup effect.
“Aserejé ja de je, De jebe tu de jebere….”
can’t wash the stripes out of a tiger