Barcelona President Joan Laporta is set to give a press conference on Monday morning at 11:00 CEST in order to explain the club’s version of events over El Caso Negreira. He remained bullish over the scandal on Sunday, but less than 24 hours ahead of that press conference, further questions have been raised over the Barcelona board.
According to the latest reporting from El Mundo, via Marca, Barcelona were well aware of the fact that Enriquez Negreira was earning desorbitant fees from the club in 2010. After Joan Laporta left the Presidency for the first time in 2010, after which then incumbent Sandro Rosell was informed not only of the high cost of the payments, but of the fact that over the course of Laporta’s presidency, his fees had quadrupled, including a 101% rise in the final year of his reign. Agency KPMG were contracted to audit the club accounts, which is when they raised the issue.
Nevertheless, Rosell chose to ignore those warnings and continued on with the payments to Negreira, with Josep Maria Bartomeu maintaining Negreira until 2018, when he lost his position as Vice-President of the Referees Committee.
Barcelona are under heavy pressure to give satisfactory answers, with potentially history-altering consequences. If Barcelona, already stretched financially, are banned from European competition, the club could be forced into major sales from the first team.