2023-04-17 18:42:39
The president of Barça, Joan Laporta, presented this Monday the ‘Negreira case’ that investigates the club for paying more than seven million euros to the previous vice president of the referees for 18 years, as a kind of global conspiracy against Barcelona, orchestrated by Real Madrid, LaLiga, some spheres of power and those who are interested in the entity becoming a public limited company and ceasing to be the banner of Catalanism.
With his reputation in tatters and two months after the scandal broke out, which is investigating criminal justice and which could leave the Barça entity out of European competitions, Laporta appeared to give his version of the facts: he clarified little , pulled victimhood and started the fan, as a smoke screen. He denied the major. “It is not a case of corruption, Barça has not bought referees,” he said at a press conference from the Camp Nou. “Receiving arbitration technical advice does not constitute a criminal offense,” he assured. “It’s a campaign to destabilize us,” he said. However, the values that ‘Can Barça’ defend so much are in question.
The partners had been asking him for explanations for weeks. He was generous in answering all the answers. But unconvincing when it comes to explaining the key issue: why Barça paid José María Enríquez Negreira for 18 years, when he was number two in the Spanish arbitration team. Laporta clung to the fact that this does not constitute a crime and also clung to the fact that the service provider was Negreira’s son. He also justified that Negreira had no influence on the designation of the referees and that in just four years the Enríquezes made more than 600 referee technical reports. That is where, in principle, the more than seven million ended up.
“Barça has not committed any crime and the Prosecutor’s Office has not been able to demonstrate that the payments could have influenced the results, but we are being lynched”
The partners had been asking him for explanations for weeks. He was generous in answering all the responses. But unconvincing when it comes to explaining the key issue: why Barça paid José María Enríquez Negreira for 18 years, when he was number two in the Spanish arbitration team. Laporta clung to the fact that this does not constitute a crime and also clung to the fact that the service provider was Negreira’s son. He also justified that Negreira had no influence on the designation of the referees and that in just four years the Enríquezes made more than 600 referee technical reports. That is where, in principle, the more than seven million ended up.
But it did not clarify the fundamentals. Why did Barça pay Negreira for so long and what was the role of the former vice president of referees almost anonymously at the club, since the reports he made with his son, although Laporta defends them, are of dubious quality. To say that a braid is homemade or a card holder, it is not necessary to spend millions of euros. The shadow of doubt remains. They will not be able to demonstrate that we pay the referees to seek a sporting benefit, said the Barça president. But only the mere attempt to influence the competition is already punishable.
“They can’t stand our Catalan identity”
“The club has never carried out any action that had the purpose or intention of altering the competition to obtain sporting advantages,” he said. The Prosecutor’s Office suspects that Barça’s payments to Negreira in exchange for reports were actually undercover bribes to referees. Laporta believes that the case will end up filed in regards to the crime of sports corruption. “Under my tenure no one has reached into the box,” he said. But he does not rule out that it could have happened with the other presidents, so he reserves the possibility of taking legal action.
In any case, he insisted, Barça is a “victim”. It is, in his opinion, in case there could be unfair administration by any of its previous rectors. And above all because he believes that the club has suffered the “fiercest external attack in its history” to destabilize it and make it lose control, if it becomes a limited company. “We are suffering from a gigantic reputational campaign with smear innuendos,” he maintained.
“Real Madrid has been the regime’s club for 70 years and has carried out an unprecedented exercise in cynicism”
The case has been under judicial investigation since March 15. Magistrate Silvia López Mejías opened proceedings, after the complaint by the Prosecutor’s Office against Barça and against former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu. The judge has commissioned the Civil Guard to investigate all the operations carried out between the club and Negreira during the 18 years in which they maintained the commercial relationship. LaLiga, the Higher Sports Council and Real Madrid have appeared as a private accusation.
The penal movement of the white entity has served Laporta on a tray to charge against his eternal rival. In Barcelona, when they paint coarse, they always appeal to the historical war with those of the Castellana. He said it is cynical for Real Madrid to say it feels wronged, when it has historically been favored and has been the regime’s club for “seven decades.” Against the president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, he was blunt: “Irresponsible”, “reckless” and “lack of professionalism”.
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