Barcelona President Joan Laporta has defended the club in the face of their anti-corruption investigation being carried out by the public prosecutor in Spain. He was denied any wrongdoing on Barcelona’s part.
Laporta started off his press conference with a 35-minute speech on the Negreira case, what he called a campaign to destabilise the club and control them. He also name-dropped La Liga President Javier Tebas as part of that campaign, while calling out Real Madrid as a ‘historically favoured’ organisation.
“Barcelona have never undertaken any operation with any intention or objective to influence the sporting outcome.”
“The Public Prosecutor has been unable to demonstrate this at any point,” Laporta began.
"Barcelona have never undertaken any operation with any intention or objective to influence the sporting outcome."
"The Public Prosecutor has been unable to demonstrate this at any point."
– Joan Laporta #CasoNegreira pic.twitter.com/f6lpZnTqLS
— Football España (@footballespana_) April 17, 2023
“Barcelona have contracted out technical and refereeing consultancy, which in of itself is not an issue.”
“This is something many big clubs do and is important.”
“We made these payments with invoices, bank payments and for specific activities.”
Laporta did seem to hint that he felt Barcelona could have been the victim of financial crimes, rather than the perpetrator of sporting offences.
“We did this with transparency. Another question would be whether, once the investigation has finished, whether certain people or private entities, not the club, have benefitted individually from these assessments. In that case, Barcelona would be the victim.”
He went on to reveal the results of a preliminary investigation carried out by an external firm.
“This is no evidence of bribery or of attempts to influence sporting outcomes.”
“There is evidence of the services of the technical refereeing consultancy. Here are the reports – 629 of them (2014-18), that have been found by compliance,” he highlighted with the documents in hand.
Laporta maintained that most of their dealings were with Negreira’s son, Javier Enriquez Romero. He remained steadfast and repeated on a number of occasions that Barcelona has not committed any crimes of corruption, nor had they tried to influence referees.
The fact he refused to acknowledge that it was an ethical conflict to be paying the Vice-President of the Referees Committee will be questioned by many, even if he did admit that nowadays he would have passed the issue onto compliance.
“629 of them (2014-18)”
Remember those years. BribELona were crowned champions four times season 2014-15 to 2018-19, as season 18 ends 2019. The “report” years lol.
“This is no evidence of bribery or of attempts to influence sporting outcomes”
Of course there is.
Notice how in that relevant timeframe (2016-2018 seasons) 0 penalties were given against club. There are compilations of pretty obvious ones too on internet, with ref standing very close yet choosing not to give penalty against bribELona.
Seems to me club got what they paid for lmaooo.
That laporta wont admit it is another matter. He fights for not being prosecuted and anything goes when his own hide is on the line.
“I can help you with league” – Negreira himself, after club lost league.
The man wasnt kidding, 4 out of 5 during the “report years” lmaoooo.
Another fun stat: la Liga record in penalties given to a club (23) happened during which years?
Yup, you guess it right, 2015-2016.
The “report years”.
No need to point out which club they were given to, lmaooo. Lets notch that down to yet another coinkydink.
Did you also count how many penalties the other teams also got. Stop being a jersey and get a life
Yeah, noone got 0 penalties against and record amount for.
Which day messi back to barcelona
Hey…. Maybe they won because they had the best players in their side.
Stop and think a bit with your brain and don’t allow your heart do the talking. Your love for your team is from the heart. Unfortunately your heart has no IQ.
I believe and admit that they were the best team in the world at that time. Take this from a total biast sport lover who prefers English Premier league football to the self destruct La Liga League.
It’s a pity that the jealously and the total bias for Real Madrid will bring down the Spanish league. Great players will not want to play in Spain as they did in the past.
At this rate, La liga will be dead just like other leagues in africa and the smaller countries in Europe.
A League with no stars is a dead league.
If I was a Spanish team supporter I would be embarrassed with what the current President of La liga is doing to the La Liga. If he stays as president for much longer we will see the la liga fail and the Premier League will flourish.
Yawn, 0 arguments 100% feelings.
Spoken just like a true Real Madrid fan
Ok racist mong.
An interesting point here.
‘For seven decades the presidents of the referees have been ex-Madrid members, ex-players or ex-managers, sometimes all at the same time!
So they will come out and tell the truth then
Yup, resulted in 4 bribELona league victories out of five, 0 penalties given against for 2 seasons which is a statistical impossibility-because they were partial to RM.
Ok racist subhuman with new persona.
You call everyone subhuman… But you’re not even fit to be called subhuman. You’re dumb racist trash.
The people replying to you know who they are.
You on the other hand, are still a dumb racist trash. And everyone else knows that.
Ok racist mongo.oid subhuman fe.cie.
Nope not everyone, just you.
And by you that includes your 100 alter ego account personas – who arent real people, maybe your psy. chia. Trist should have told you that.
Spot on. Which is precisely why clubs other than Real have had to pay for analysis and referee scouting. Because the playing field is NOT level, and virtually everyone outside of the Bernabeu knows it.
The Barca “had no penalties in two years” thing? Please. Ramos and Casemiro played with absolute impunity and rarely faced sanction, and let’s not even start with the magical “penalties” Real were awarded late in matches when they dearly needed a goal. This “whiter than the driven snow” Madrid angle is hilarious.
Check a plethora of videos online before embarrasing yourself furthermore on noncalled penalties. Im combination with a record amount of penalties given, its makes sense that they exaclty got what they paid for during “report years”.
Oh so its RMs fault that bribELona had to pay refs?
Hilarious.
You peoples coping mechanisms are hilarious.
Given that your coach blamed sun and grass for latest loss of points, Im not surprised that this clubs fans imagination is equally vivid.
Nepotic minds. If you love football, you will appreciate barca of that era. Dominance.