Barcelona's president, Joan Laporta, announced today, Monday, that all payments made to a company owned by José Enrique Negreira, the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees in the Spanish league, were transparent and for advisory purposes, not for obtaining any unfair sporting advantage. Laporta stated: "In summary, Barcelona has not committed any corrupt acts. All operations we conducted are legitimate and have been scrutinized through proper financial audits. We are far from any suspicion of corruption."
In a press conference held today to discuss the case concerning José Enrique Negreira, Laporta said, "Throughout the club's 123-year history, Barcelona has always been a role model in fair play both on and off the field," indicating that there is a media campaign aimed at tarnishing the club's reputation. He confirmed that the internal investigation conducted by the club did not reveal any violations and asserted that the case is fabricated to damage Barcelona's image, accusing the president of the Spanish League, Javier Tebas, of "trying to harm Barcelona's reputation."
A court in Barcelona agreed to consider the case last week after prosecutors filed a complaint alleging that the Spanish club paid out a purported sum of €7.3 million (approximately $7.95 million) between 2001 and 2018 to companies owned by the then vice president of the refereeing committee of the Spanish Football Federation.
