The first (legitimate) league in Barça’s history?

All the boomers Blaugranas are children of a generation that had two identified public enemies: Real Madrid and the referees. There was no lost league that was not the fault of the two papus of the time. “Madrid is the government’s team” and “The referees are bought” were the two phrases that were repeated most on Monday mornings in coffee gatherings in bars, reviewing the sports newspaper in turn, with the smell of cigar and breath of carajillo. That is why, many years later, it is still surprising that the tide has turned and that now, all of a sudden, Barça has become the victim of thethe state in which to be guilty of adulterating the competition.

The Negreira case makes hair stand on end, in every way. The feelings are contradictory and with each passing day, the more the thread is pulled, the worse the consequences can be. Knowing that Barça paid for two decades – at least – to the vice-president of the referees is scandalous. Knowing that it wasn’t with a brown envelope but making a bill makes it surreal. And the latest information, which points to a former commissioner manager – Josep Contreras, who died in December – is crying out for heaven. Apart from the scandal it entails, the suspicions of bribery and the indelible stain on the image of the club, the most surprising thing of all is that the case was uncovered by a routine inspection of the Treasury.

Really? It’s been two decades talking about Gaspart’s carpets, about Laporta’s responsibility action, about signings”xupant a pen” by Rosell and del forensic of Bartomeu Of audits, of due diligenceof compliance, motions of censure and Barçagate. And it turns out that the club spends almost 7 million in payments and everything ends up being discovered by chance, because Barça turns off the tap and the Tax Agency decides to stick its nose in? Had no one in the club seen it? And no one from the Federation, where the Technical Committee of Referees hangs from, either? Or is it that, quite simply, everyone was doing this, but Barça is the only one who has been caught with their hands on the plate.

Beyond the ridicule and suspicion, it is difficult to know what the real consequences of the Negreira case will be for Barça; whether any penalty has actually prescribed or may still accrue therefrom. In any case, attention is drawn to the calmness with which – or at least it appears – Bartomeu has taken it. The silence of Laporta is striking and that Gaspart, who is the one who started it all, says that he knew nothing about it – clearly, coming from him, it is not strange either.

A week after the scandal, only two things are clear. The first, that Negreira took the hair of Barça. And the second, that after years and years of suspicion, of Villaratos and other myths fueled by the cavern and by Central Lechera to discredit Barça, we may be facing the first league in half a century that will really be recognized as to legitimate from Madrid. That would be historic!